Uzumaki Naruto Pressure
by relguf
Summary: Starts off 10 year old Naruto, highlights his gradual stress changing him into a more real person not evil, yet a little damaged. No pairings as of yet. Some gore in later chapters, warning for all now. Thankyou for your time.
1. Chapter 1 Ten years young

**Uzumaki Naruto: Pressure**

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto (or many things, such as a Mk-41) in any way, and write for amusement, not profit.

Edit 23.4.07 – mostly spelling errors.

Good day, this happens to be the first fanfiction article that I have wrote, so go easy if you would be so kind (all replies are welcome, but as they say constructive criticism helps me write better, which is hopefully a desired thing). I am not religious, nor do I harbour a copious amount of tolerance, any insulting text I ask you to please ignore, as the product of inconsiderate, ignorant work. Eh for a summary, starts as Naruto being two years behind the anime start, say ten and highlights all the reasons I can think of for Naruto to go slightly insane. He shall not be evil, simply 'damaged goods: open with care'. I am not particularly fluent in any language, so forgiveness please for the inevitable spelling and grammatical errors. As for pairings, The author is male - not good with romance or the life of love. Any kind of pairings will be thrown randomly into the story, like a grenade into a school, or be a Naruanko pairing, which is just plainly insane (in an extremely disturbing sense). On with what is hopefully able to be termed a piece of written work, instead of trash.

The small boy ran from one alleyway to another, dripping sweat – and blood as he went. His thoughts at this time were:

"Why me, it's not like I ever did the villagers any wrong, those pranks were not that serious.

He had encountered a drunken villager a few hours ago, who summarily smashed a bottle over his head, while he mumbled

"It may very well be troublesome, but my wife said it has to be done, we have to teach the demon a lesson so he knows who is boss"

The drunk had then staggered on in his lazy meandering way, leaving behind a stunned (both physically and mentally) boy, by the name of Uzumaki Naruto, who spluttered out

"Why me, a million curses on drunken villagers, they have always been annoying what with the

chasing of me, although I knew they hated me none of them has actually smashed a bottle over

my head before".

While he was fuzzily speaking, the large gash across his scalp slowly but surely started closing over, with but a small gout of steam. Naruto then stood up and resumed his normal trek back to his lonely apartment (flitting from one alley to another), which he had lived in since the age of five years.

- Long-winded explanation here. Skip if you're sick of these Kyuubi introductions. -

While the human body is a literal living-breathing miracle, there is not usually a force within it that allows for near spontaneous regeneration. Where the young Uzumaki differed from the norm was not in his blood, as a genetic irregularity passed down through the generations, but in a form of energy that existed inside his body.

This energy was unlike most. It is theorised by some that the only sentient creature that could have created humankind would have no corporal body – that is to say, it would be a completely spiritual entity. If one takes this as fact, then this energy in Naruto is very similar to what could be termed a god.

The humans who came to know this energy named it Kyuubi, the nine tailed demon, oft the Fox. Considered to be the strongest amongst its brethren, who were ninefold, the Kyuubi was, and is known as a malevolent force with the destruction of humanity its only appreciable goal. One swipe of a singular tail could level mountains, another create a Tsunami. Power the likes of which humans could barely (if at all) comprehend; this 'demon' had at its clawtips.

It is unknown why this Kyuubi would appear from time to time in the history of man; other than to lay waste to as many cities as is possible. After doing such, the Kyuubi would disappear from whence it came, only to be seen when the next time for a little disaster was ripe. The country known to have the spirit and essence of fire (and thus was named Country of Fire) particularly loathed the nine –tailed, as its last three occurrences had been within the borders of fire.

It is partially for this reason that the various Shinobi of multiple countries banded together under their own most powerful, to form 'hidden' villages, in many countries. This is where the hidden village of Kohohagure enters into our story.

The citizens of Konoha are believed to house the spirit of fire, their teamwork is second to none and they value the life of their own above all other things. As a young Shinobi from a prestigious clan stated

"Those who do not obey the rules are trash, but those who abandon their friends are even worse trash"

The Shinobi of Konoha live by this code. They consider their lives sacrificed for the defence of their home and people to be a worthy end. When the Kyuubi attacked Konoha, many Shinobi sacrificed themselves to delay it, and prevent is from reaching their loved ones, safe in the village hidden in the leaves (Konohagure). They were also delaying the monster, so their strongest Shinobi, the Yondiame Hokage could enter the fray. Enter he did, and after a no doubt epic battle, managed to seal the demon away. His own life was expended to seal it, into a newborn baby.

The Yondiame asked for the child Naruto to be viewed as a hero, the one who would bear the strongest imaginable burden for the sake of the village. It was not to be most of the villagers would not forgive Naruto for his existence, as he is a constant reminder of their loved ones who died in the Kyuubi attack. A few fools even believe he is the demon itself, sealed into human form, and would like nothing better than to 'dispose of the demon once and for all'.

This is the life in which our young Jinnchuriki (demon container) has been for the past ten years, hated and shunned by most. The current leader of the village, Sarutobi the Sandiame Hokage is perhaps the only compassionate soul, as he agreed with the Yondiame's original plan and implemented a law stating that no one could speak of Narutos demon to those knew not. Specifically those of the younger generation(s). By doing this the third hoped to give Naruto a fighting chance of friendship with those his age, even if the older generations hated him.

This was not to be. The children saw and felt the way their parents and elders treated Naruto; therefore most shunned him as well, even when they knew not the why of it. This is the situation Naruto has been living in for the past six years, since being unceremoniously ejected from the orphanage at the age of four, when he could walk and talk reasonably well. Suffice to say he was not a happy child, nor loved.

- Long-winded explanation done, read on if you wish -

He had been focussing on the ninja academy since entering two years previous, as it was the only real achievement he felt had true merit.

"I shall become a shinobi of the hidden leaf. That will show everyone how great I am, nobody else is needed for my survival."

Also my pranking will be so much better when I can shoot fire and beat on anyone who tries to interfere!"

Once home, at his stinking, squalid one room apartment, he sat on the bed to plot nefarious deeds. After some time he decided to reattempt the Jutsu he was learning from a scroll he stole from the library. The head librarian would not let him in to study, under the pretence that he was too distracting, with his near fluorescent orange jacket and pants known as the Kawarimi no Jutsu.

This Jutsu is well known for being one of the most useful in and out of combat, as it allows for quick relocation in the event of the current location becoming untenable. It is a perfect technique for stealth and surprise attacks, which are the trademarks of the shinobi. The ones who practise enough, or possess unusual talent with the Jutsu can even learn to use it without the (four?) handseals usually required.

Naruto knew all of this, he read it and more direct from the illicitly acquired scroll. A shame for him that he could not seem to perform the Jutsu no matter how he tried. Most attempts resulted in … no result at all. More Chakra forced into any one seal did nothing, or at best resulted in a short breeze wafting throughout the apartment. He even tried less, but found he simply could not use such a small amount of Chakra at all.

Throughout his observation of the technique execution of his fellow academy students, he realised the amount of energy they released for basic Jutsu was about one tenth of the lowest amount he could use. Also he noted that the students would be exhausted after a mere one hour training session in ninjutsu, whereas he had gone eight hours straight in an attempt to force the Bunshin no Justu to work.

This lead him to realise that even though he was just a child, he had more Chakra capacity than his Chuunin teachers did, which was simply too much for the basic Jutsu with his (lack of) control. After a long and fruitless training session with Kawarimi, he decided to redirect his efforts into a Jutsu that required far more Chakra to perform, to test his capacity and prove that his problem was the minimal Chakra requirement of the academy level Jutsu.

The problem was that he did not know any high level techniques and even if he did, it would be unlikely he would have the control or experience to pull them off. As he could not learn any clan techniques from having no clan, the decision was made by Naruto that cold day to create a 'training technique' that used as much Chakra as possible. He extrapolated out loud:

"Yosh, its decided! I will make my own Jutsu perhaps many.

The problem is that I don't really have any idea how to do that … hmm … not much point in modifying someone else's Jutsu, this will be a completely original Jutsu.

The problem is that none of the handseals do exactly what I want, and multiple seals would be too hard at the moment, more training would help but time is of the essence."

Even though Naruto has been mistreated and uneducated so far in his life, he has a mysteriously good understanding of the language, both written and spoken. This will be explained in more depth later on in the story. That is if I can keep motivated enough to continue it.

"Ah this is difficult, Ill just use a seal in each hand, the modified ram seal in the right and an equally modified Karana seal in the left."

The Karana seal is a one handed seal, forming a fist with the index and pinkie finger sticking upwards. It is a seal for suppressing and driving away demons and demonic energy. In this case Naruto is using it with the Ram seal to focus and increase his power, while the Karana seal expels the random bursts of Kyuubis chakra floating around in Naruto's own pool.

Naruto discovered that with these two seals in combination he could temporarily increase his power, while actually increasing his degree of control by about 40. While this in itself was not a Jutsu, he could use it preceding one to let him more easily accomplish the technique. He attempted his newly named 'fox release' in combination with the Bunshin technique and accomplished…

A single clone which was smaller, unmoving and of a lighter hue than Naruto himself.

"Shan'aro! That should have worked, curse it all, it really should have" Shouted out the energetic blonde.

He then proceeded to stomp the unmoving clone into oblivion. At which point his foot encountered a seemingly solid doppelganger, which let out an inarticulate grunt and twitching motion before 'Poofing' out of existence in a cloud of smoke. To which Naruto said to the world at large

"Um, ok. That's really weird it created a failed clone as usual, but it had a real body?"

Not receiving any answer from the world, or the inside of his room, he repeated the process, with similar results, except for the clone being slightly bigger, and closer in looks and skin tone to the original.

He attempted his newly created and named 'Fox release' with the Kawarimi, however there was now a definitive result – the item he attempted to replace with started to glow blue, then flared red and _imploded_ sucking a fair amount of air into the depression. He experimented with the released Kawarimi and figured out he could implode objects (including a painfully damaged toenail) or superheat them, depending on the amount of Chakra he filtered with the Karana seal.

He decided to call it a night, after all five hours of practising a new highly draining Jutsu modifier is too much for most, and enough for even Naruto. He ate a bowl of instant ramen thinking to himself:

"Hated ramen, if it wasn't so cheap it would never be eaten here."

He then showered, did sundry other nightly activities and went to sleep on his old, stinking mattress with its single tattered sheet and blanket. He woke up every few hours, and trained for half an hour each time, as is his usual practise. The newly developed technique 'fox release' was unused throughout the night, his usual fruitless attempts to force the academy Jutsu to work were sufficient for the night.

By six o'clock he finally abandoned the futile attempts at a good night's rest, Naruto got up, did those sundry morning activities, then set off for a run around training area forty-four. He didn't want to run around the village, as he might then encounter other ninja training. Since the drunken man who had hurt him yesterday had definitely been a Shinobi of the leaf, he was becoming especially wary of them. He ran laps around the training area, dubbed the forest of death until 8:30 AM. Then Naruto started his usual one-sided conversation as he ran to the academy.

"Yosh, time to get to the academy and watch all the idiots who cant listen get scolded by Iruka or Mizuki-sensei!

Still, I kind of wish that this area was not forbidden, it looks like there are plenty of big creatures inside, training in there would be a good indicator of my survival skills."

Unbeknown to the young boy, there was a pair of eyes focused on his retreating back; complete with the spiral pattern he favoured. The eyes closed, and were gone in a purple flash.

"Time for the academy, better put the idiot mask on, stupid grin: check, vacant look: check. Yosh that's one idiot mask for the day."

'Ah there is Sakura, the teme, that quiet girl, baka-Kiba and the rest. Hmm the lazy bum is looking at me.'

"Hi Shikamaru, hows things?" Naruto loudly inquired, to which Shika drawled

"Its troublesome, my dad came home drunk with broken glass in his hand mom nearly killed him before she took him to the hospital and she didn't make any breakfast this morning because they are both still there."

"Your father… Broken glass…" Naruto whispered, before taking a seat as far from Shikamaru as possible. The lazy kid in question was thinking

'Wonder what got Naruto all hot and bothered, ah well its too troublesome to find out' After which the child promptly joined his best friend Choji, sleeping. Iruka entered the classroom and called the role with several 'Hai's' from most, a 'Hn' from a certain dark eyed duck-butt hair style boy and a YOSH, HERE IRUKA SENSEI from the blonde haired, blue eyed hyperactive academy student himself.

Iruka then started with his usual repetitive drone on the history of Konohagure. Today he was talking about the Kages, from the Shodiame, who was well known for his wood manipulation techniques to the Yondiame, praised as 'The Yellow Flash' for his speed and grace on the battlefield. As usual, after about half an hour of droning Iruka mercilessly questioned Naruto about his lecture. As is also the norm, the boy answered every question with perfect accuracy and clarity, all while doing so in a monotone worthy of Shikamaru. This ticked off Iruka to no end, as Naruto always seemed to sleep through his lectures, like a certain few other students (Cho, Shika and Kiba).

Then, after lunch (during which Naruto has dried instant Ramen) they went outside for taijutsu practise sparring. Naruto, through the rotten luck he usually has with such things has to spar with the most powerful academy student, Kiba. They tensed up in preparation and Naruto decides to have some fun, so he confidently yells out

"Hey dog breath, bet you cant hit me if you try all day!" To which Kiba heatedly yelled even louder

"Come on then you Dobe, my _family _techniques will rip you apart ahhahahaha."

Not waiting for the instructor's signal to start, Kiba put his dog down, told it "stay back Akamaru, I can finish him with one hit!" and charged forwards recklessly, arms held downwards, with hands in an open handed claw-like style. Naruto just stood there, looking like an orange and yellow statue as Kiba bore down upon him.

"Prepare yourself you loser, Gijyuu Ninpou, Shikyaku no Jutsu!" With that cry, Kiba's fingernails became clawlike, and faint wisps of his Chakra were seen as he charged his energy to his arms and legs.

Naruto finally moved as Kiba came within striking distance. He walked into the right-handed strike of his enraged opponent, as the attack landed he grasped the offending wrist with both hands and pivoted his body around to the left, throwing the Inuzaka over his shoulder.

Said Inuzaka promptly hit the wall ten feet behind Naruto with a sickening crunch.

The end result was Naruto with five small, yet deep cuts on his chest and a wounded, unconscious Kiba.

He had hit the wall feet first cracking an ankle, not having time to manoeuvre as Naruto had used his momentum for the counter-attack. At this point in time our hero thought

'Hmm, everyone else seems to be unable to take a hit, if I can take the damage, and use that same damage to attack my opponent, it will make for a powerful yet easily learnt and highly unpredictable combat style. Might as well fight like this, but what to call it… I know, the Seppeku Fist (suicide fist, forgive me if the spelling is far off)'

The boy then noted, as Iruka took a still unconscious Inuzaka family member to the hospital, that his cuts were slowly shrinking and actually healing before his very eyes. As he had been concentrating Chakra to the area of his chest to better counter Kiba's attack, it seemed to accelerate the healing process.

What Naruto did not realise was that his own Chakra cleared a path for Kyuubi's own to come in and force heal the damaged area. While not realising the why of it, he still understood that massing Chakra in an area before, during and after being wounded accelerated his healing process. Suffice to say the young Shinobi to be filed this information away in a file marked "Personal Battle Style Development"

Without a style or even techniques of his own to use and with no desire to steal, modify or borrow the abilities and hard work of others, Narutos only remaining option was to create his own unique fighting style. One that was not rigid and unyielding from being passed down through the generations, such as the Hyuga style Gentle Fist.

The advantage of the inherited power is that there is almost always someone to teach the ins and outs of the style. Someone who will likely always be better, or at least far more experienced then yourself in that same style and thus always good to discuss strategy with.

The disadvantage of that same power is Twofold. Firstly there has likely been a large host of people over a long time who fought against this power, and might have found ways to counter, or nullify said power. Second is that over time, doing and teaching the same thing may result in stagnation, and weakening of the overall power and ability of those who practise said power.

Take the Hyuga themselves, it is unknown how talented the first members to develop the white eyes, and Gentle Fist style. It is quite likely however, their talent was far higher than Hyuga Negi, or Hiashi for that matter, the two most powerful Hyuga alive today. It is definite however that they created the techniques, either from original ideas or modifications of existing techniques at that time.

Therefore they had talent that the aforementioned two do not – that is to say the original Hyuga had the strength of will and self esteem to throw away the advice of their teachers and so called betters, in order to create something new and wild, untested and free. Hyuga Hinata has this talent, to change the very fundamentals of the Hyuga power, from primarily offensive and crippling to primarily defensive.

The true advantage with going out on a limb and doing something new, different and wild is that there is likely to be no known counter to the technique, as there has as of yet been no time to develop one. The disadvantage of course is not having enough time and experience with this new power to know all of its ins and outs, the danger and risk associated with its use. The author shudders to think how the first person found out the seal that was used for the Kyuubi happens to require the caster's soul to properly execute. In any case, back to Naruto.

After the rest of his boring class, in which Iruka kept sending him angry looks (as in a spar it is not good form to wound the opponent, it is only a friendly match after all) Naruto went home, practising his developing stealth and agility skills as he went.

The rest of that week went as one could usually expect, with training solitarily (or so he thought), in the morning. The academy class in the day (with a pouting Kiba on crutches) to the long afternoon and night of Jutsu practise and eventual, torturous sleep. Because of his self-control, Naruto appeared to sleep like a rock, but every night he had dark dreams. Flashes of red in the dark of night, the screams of the dying and that wonderful, warm blood! So much blood, enough to cover the walls and homes of all konoha, enough for even his ponderous body to bathe in… As the nine monstrous appendages writhed throughout the night sky, a primal roar is heard…

Then the ten-year-old Jinnchuriki would awake, to ponder these dreams of darkness. As he lay down to sleep on Thursday night, an event was fast approaching. **The** event that happens to be the consistently worst day of his young life. It was time to go shopping . . .

Authors notes/confession?

Eh ok then this is seemingly a good point to stop. I wanted to introduce the difficulties of Naruto's life while not making him seem to be too persecuted, as it would be out of character for the village in general. Or so I think, the ones where he gets beaten by 90 of people are a little too much, if you think at all like me (scary thought). I also wanted to introduce his problem with the basic academy level Ninjutsu and explain that he is not going to have godlike powers.

_This shall __**not**_be_ a massively overpowered Naruto, who somehow gains the sharingan/bloodline that automatically pwns everything: the end. _He does have a Kekkei Genkai, it has already been hinted at. It has nothing to do with the Kyuubi.

I have explained the replacement (Kawarimi) Jutsu and the clone (Bunshin) Jutsu. As you can guess the shopping is a good test of Naruto's Henge (illusion) Jutsu. It just may explain the fundamentals of his Orokie (sexy) Jutsu as well, if I can think of a moderately convincing way to do it. So yes, first fic ever, and written work since the end of schooling two? Years back. Don't expect it to be perfect, I am open to any and all suggestions as long as they be generally constructive, not like "this fic is one of many shit ones f off and die loser."

Hmm I am not big on pairings, simply lacking in good convincing ways to write them in, but you never know. No goddamn Yaoi pairings okie ppl. I don't care if you like them or not, that's your business, but this is my goddamn fic and I do not like them full stop end of one-sided discussion. If anything, see the top. I think Naruanko would just be hilarious. Obviously that would majorly be for the sake of humour, a topic I am unskilled with (starting to see a trend here?).

Ok good day/night everyone, if you are still reading this, please review and give me suggestions, if I understand there is huge room for improvement (and I do) Then you surely do as well, so help out or the pox take you.


	2. Chapter 2 Purple Woman

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto in any way, shape or form. As far as I remember, there are no OC's in my fanfiction to date (all of one chapter), so I don't own those either. In fact, I should just write what I do own, it would take less time, even with my rambling.

Edited 23.4.07 Once more, the spelling thing.

Please enjoy this chapter, if the site ever lets me post it. Damned Internet hates me so much – I return the favour.

Naruto awoke in the morning as is the norm for him (the expression 'at sparrows fart' have any meaning to you?), had his Ramen with a muttered 'itadakimas' and much slurping of noodles, various disgusting grinding sounds. He then did his usual morning activities before locking up his apartment, despite the rather large hole that had been previously knocked into it and went to train outside the forest of death.

"Ah this is the life, nothing to do today, as it's a field day for the Chunnin teachers. (Days in which the teachers participate in normal missions so they keep in shape both physically and mentally).

Yep, things are great," exclaimed the hyperactive shinobi as his jacket split at the seams from his light warm up stretches. To which Naruto loudly and vehemently yelled

"Oh no, no no no, this is just bad, now I will really have to go shopping today. Damnit, thought it could wait for a few days."

During his running he failed to take note of his surroundings – a basic skill taught to shinobi of all rank. The glint of sunlight, such as that of a telescopic lens went unnoticed by the young academy student.

After he had completed his three-kilometre sprint around the forest, he did some more light stretches, accompanied by more ripping and tearing of his already tattered jacket. Naruto then sprinted off to the village to find the appropriate shopping area for food and shinobi ware/gear.

"Hey there is the Ichiraku ramen stand!" Naruto loudly exclaimed to himself as he was walking through the village.

"I guess it would not hurt to get some food and ask them if there are any good places for shopping for allot of Ramen ingredients.

I might as well try making some Ramen myself, surely it could not cost more than the usual instant junk." As he said this, he was thinking

'Wont be able to buy any non orange clothing this time around, there will not be enough money, but it does not really matter, its a good training exercise wearing the hideous colour.'

After being unceremoniously kicked out of two stores, Naruto found the perfect place. Well it was small, dank and tucked away into a seemingly forgotten corner, but he was admitted in. The reason for this became apparent when the owner, an old lady with clouded-over eyes, welcomed Naruto in.

'Yep she must be blind, poor granny' he thought.

"Yo, do you guys stock shinobi uniform for children?" Naruto loudly inquired, to which the blind lady replied

"Yes young man, in the back on the left are some such garments. They are not the height of fashion these days, but are made to last." Naruto thanked her then went to inspect the stock. There were the average items, but what caught the orange-hating young boy's eyes was the fishnet uniform, with a durable looking tan trench coat (think mini-anko outfit).

He liked the outfit, because the fishnet could be adjusted as he grew, and would be easy to clean (he has no access to a washing machine, and washes his clothes in the sink) and the trench coat he could buy it long now and use it till it became ridiculously short. Another major plus in his eyes was that the entire outfit, with two spare fishnet sets in larger sizes, was only 350 Ryo, roughly one third of the money he had to spend. Not to mention the drab tan, black and lack of orange would make getting around the village at night easier (or so he fondly believed).

Lugging the gear up to the counter, he told the old lady what he wanted, and she went through the tags on the clothing to make sure, which had differing patterns stencilled on them so she could differentiate the items. Being as there were literally hundreds of items in the small clothing store this demonstrated the woman's mind was still sharp, despite the years (presumably) robbing her of the sense of sight. After she counted the money and bagged the shopping, Naruto ran off energetically, bags waving all around the place in search of a place to buy Ramen kits/ingredients.

He stopped at a store that had the look of being newly built and opened. The sign above the door read:

Akimitchi Gourmet cooking supplies, with a small slogan underneath 'There is no substitute for good Ramen!'

Naturally he was interested, as Ramen was the only food he could generally afford, so he went into the shop and up to the counter. A rather Large, happy looking woman, whose face tightened momentarily upon setting eyes on her latest customer said icily "May I help you... sir?" To which Naruto cautiously replied

"Yes, please do you sell ramen supplies, or kits to make ramen? I have been wanting to experiment with different flavours for a little while now."

The Woman's eyes immediately lit up, and she loudly exclaimed

"Of course, dearie (to which Naruto mentally inclined an eyebrow) we have some new make-it-yourself Ramen kits, as new as the store is, only 350 Ryo for a one month kit, and being as you are our first purchaser of the kit, Ill throw in another monthly kit for free! How does that sound?"

Naruto was almost stunned, from the woman going cold over seeing him (as did everyone in Konoha), to her giving him a brilliant deal, usually one months supply of instant Ramen cost him over 550 Ryo (surprise surprise eh?). He gladly accepted, paid for the Kits, and left with a "come again soon, dearie" from the now beaming woman, carrying them ponderously in his small, yet strong (for a ten year old kid that is) arms. He managed to get home although not without incident, he had politely declined the less than sincere offer by two young Shinobi (late teens of the Chunnin rank) to help him carry the kits to his place. The shinobi, not about to be outmanuvered by the demon, as they thought of him, asked him again, ever so politely (and insincerely) to help him with his shopping.

Seeing that the men would not back off, Naruto decided to use his new secret anti-pervert (in other words breathing adult male) Jutsu. He quickly set the boxes down, performed the appropriate seal (right hand in a fist with index and middle finger pointed up, other fingers grasping left hand in the same seal as the right) and cried out...

"Henge!"

In a flash of smoke, a stunning young pig-tailed blonde now stood before the insincere Chunnin... wearing nothing but her skin, with only a few insubstantial wisps of cloud covering her 'assets'. Suffice to say twin Geysers of blood propelled the two young men to the wall on the other side of the street, where they lay, twitching and bleeding. The expressions of their faces were identical - unfiltered, unconscious joy. Naruto was then to be seen jumping up and down in the air in equal (although non-perverted) joy, screaming out at the top of his lungs

"Yata It worked, now I can henge properly and all of those hours sneaking in and 'reading' at old man Teuchi's book-store was so worth it, believe it!" (Had to put it in once)

The boy suddenly stopped, glanced around to the left and right thinking 'danger, danger Will Robinson (well not quite), but where from?' He had his answer as he observed the surrounding populace. Around twenty females, some Kuinoichi, others civilian, were giving him powerful, yet decidedly twitchy blank looks. One of them took a step forward once, twice, three times... That being enough for the jailer of the mighty Kyuubi no Kitsune - he grabbed his shopping and fled the scene at top speed, with an enraged mob of women chasing madly behind him chanting for the blood and execution of the 'perverted one'.

Thinking fast, Naruto used 'Fox release' with Kawarimi on a garbage bin as he fled. It started to glow blue as he passed by and as the enraged women ran past he relaxed concentration on the Karana seal, imploding the bin and sucking all the women in its general vicinity towards the previously occupied space. The end result was a tangled pile of disorientated women, a now safe yet still retreating child and a number of dumbfounded onlookers. As thee boy fled the scene a flash of purple could be seen, flitting across the rooftops in the general vicinity of training area 44. The owner of said purple flash thought to herself

'Hmm, so that is where the gaki went off to today. What an interesting kid, not even sure what that last technique was yet it certainly worked. I might have to make my presence known next time he comes near my home, as he has been doing lately. Although he managed that scene well, I know there must be some resentment towards the village lurking behind those innocent blue eyes. It will be enjoyable to see if I can bring some of it out in the open, for a little fun.'

Naruto, sneezing repeatedly as he fled knew not of the possibly sinister plans the mysterious woman had in store for the near future. He thought that the women must have been cursing him as they recovered from his surprise tactics. He mused 'hmm, might have to rename that one, to Gravity no Jutsu or something. Truly, it would not do to have anyone who did not clearly see it understand from the name how to copy it. A shame that I have to concentrate to hold the Fox release while doing the Kawarami seals, makes it hard to accomplish while moving like that, oh well practise makes for an easier escape route.'

Then once he was moderately safe, locked in his apartment, doing what was becoming easier and easier for the lonely boy, he started talking to himself (with his usual volume of course).

"Yosh, now I have ramen for two months, and clothing. Do not really need any more Kunai or Shuriken at the moment, there was about half a set thrown into my windows over the course of the last month. That makes almost all the Kunai and Shuriken I need now, knew it was a great idea to paint big bullseyes outside my western windows.

All right that is the necessary shopping done for today and (as he looked at the setting sun out of a window) it is getting late. Time for dinner, so time to make some Ramen!"

He opened one of the kits, saw the instruction book and recipe book, which he skimmed over before beginning. He tried several unusual things in his ramen, from new lean chicken to little white meadow mushrooms. The young Jinnchuriki usually was too afraid to eat mushrooms because of not being let in the library to see which were safe to consume. Despite his usual loud appearance, Naruto is not a fool, and he realised it would be very easy for a storeowner to sell him deadly mushrooms by 'mistake'.

The homemade Ramen was the most delicious thing he had ever tasted, putting the 'instant crap' to shame. Which he loudly proclaimed to the night at large, luckily for him his apartment block was empty of other perhaps intolerant neighbours, due to it being in a small condemned section of town that had been damaged and never fixed in the Kyuubi attack ten years previous.

After dinner, and the arduous process of cleaning up which consisted of washing, drying and putting away the various dishes that had for the most part gotten little use over the years, Naruto collapsed onto his 'bed' to think. Even though it was merely a poorly constructed frame padded with years worth of newspapers scavenged from local garbage bins, complete with a moth-eaten sheet and blanket, it was what he had.

"Yosh, time for training tomorrow, then there is the idiot barrage at the academy, at least Kiba-teme wont be as loud as usual, bet that ankle of his will shut him up. Hmm, 'twas actually kind of satisfying to injure the arrogant fool, this must be what all Shinobi feel while on missions, its going to be fun indeed."

Naruto did not even realise that he had spoken his thoughts aloud (and he is, as you no doubt all know, loud). This might worry the average person, if they realised they were talking to themselves, but not the energetic boy. No, he would simply think, and likely say that he is glad to not be talking 'with' himself, as well as 'to'. It is hard to make the young Jinnchuriki down, he is like an emotional freight train, and no amount of loneliness can slow his progress through life. Of course, being alone is not desirable, nor is it easy, but Naruto had simply given up on the idea that there would be anyone in life who could and would actually want to be there for him.

Even among those who would talk to him as a human being, instead of a demon (now numbering the sandiame, The ramen stand owner and his daughter, the old woman at the shinobi store and the homely woman at Akimitchi Ramen supplies) the young boy never thought of them as a family. He merely thought of them as friends, people whom, for whatever reason, acknowledged his existence and worth in life. He had no concept of a family, and thus did not desire one. Seeing the other children with their families did not make him jealous, as it did the other orphan in Konoha. It made him relieved, these 'mothers and fathers' only delayed their children from growing up and learning to truly live faster.

So Uzumaki Naruto at age ten, eight days into our observations on his life is somewhat of an enigma. No close friends, with only five people in the world who even talk to him civilly, and no desire for those true friends or a family. His career choice is the life of a Konoha Shinobi, the reasoning being that he wants to be able to injure others, without punishment and in the back of his mind lurks a desire to be strong enough to punish those who currently try to make his life a living hell. Those people he wishes to return the favour to, becoming a shinobi is in his mind the perfect way to accomplish this goal of not revenge, but retribution. It is as they say " Do not get angry, get even." It is for the same reason he does his little pranks, not for attention, but to make the life of those hated individuals difficult.

//A.N. (Author's note) I love Easter eggs, cannot eat much chocolate but its great for an occasional treat, ne? Hope yall like the story so far, not sure about my own opinion, better get back to it ja ne.)//

After his usual nightly activities, Naruto settled down for sleep and his usual impersonation (henge) of a rock, albeit a snoring, Naruto shaped rock, but a rock nonetheless. This was done so to ward against possible stealthy night visitors stabbing him as he slept. The disguise was nowhere near perfect, but he did pump a little fox release into the henge beforehand. This made what was once a simple optical illusion into a semi-solid shape. Because it was made out of Naruto's own Chakra, he could feel if the shape was damaged or disrupted. This should, in theory give him enough time to wake up and dodge/counter an attack, or at least shift position enough so that it is a less fatal attack.

Naruto could have set traps around his apartment, or even the building; he had learnt plenty about proper placement and execution in his pranking time. The truth was though, that he did not want to blunder into those same traps himself if he forgot their exact location, or hurt another person who happened to be innocent. There was also the feeling lurking in the back of Naruto's head that if anyone could get in undetected to kill him, that it would not be a bad thing to die. He may have had definite goals to work for, and be working hard to accomplish these goals, but the boy had no happiness in his life, no true joy. He found pleasure in watching others be embarrassed by his traps, or wounding others in combat. Something in his mind recognised this as unhealthy and surmised that perhaps it would be better off if the name Uzumaki Naruto drifted into fate. This does not mean he wanted to die, or be killed, merely that he had no fear of the unknown, as for Naruto, it could not get much worse, physically or mentally.

Naruto did believe in fate, strongly so as well, but not in the way Neji does (everything is pre-determined. I shall win because it is fate, etc). His thoughts on the subject revolve more around that the past is fate - written unchangeable fact. He knows that he was going to be born alone, with the hatred of the villagers and Shinobi alike something to live with. However the view in his mind is that the past may influence the future's course drastically, but so do the decisions that people make. For example, if he were content to be a civilian, some of those who 'actively' hate him would be more content, not seeing him as so large a threat. However Naruto will be a Shinobi, because he shall not stop until it is so, come hell or high water.

Tuesday morning 6:00 AM. With the dissipation of Naruto's 'Rock Mirage', the boy in question literally rolled himself out of bed. His fading henge propelled him into his roll, making sure of his awakening on time. He rushed through his morning activities (including dressing in his new clothing), and his last cup of instant ramen (with a mental grimace, the home made ramen is much better, both in taste and nutrition) before locking up and leaving for training area 44. Once there, he started the usual laps around the forest after the usual light stretches. Only half way around the first lap, several Kunai attached to a bundled-up sheet shot out from the forest, as the kunai landed and unfurled the sheet a young woman unfurled with the sheet.

"Yo gaki, what brings you to my home?"

She was young, in her mid twenties and wore the most... coincidental set of clothing. Tan trench coat, fishnet undershirt, the same leggings, a light brown short skirt and metallic ankle/shin guards. Minus the guards and replace the light brown skirt with black shorts, and you have Naruto's attire. Suffice to say Naruto merely stared at this woman, who looked like she had bought the exact same clothing at he. They both did the staring thing for a bit, then at the same time, yelled

"Why are you wearing my clothes Gaki/lady?" Which was followed by another good old mutual staring contest. The woman finally broke the now awkward silence with a surprisingly soft

"Yo, I am Mitarashi Anko, you are who?" To which the boy replied

"Uzumaki Naruto, in response to your other query, I am here to train my body, the other training areas are too... frequented for my tastes. The clothes are new, purchased them at an old store yesterday when I could afford something other than an orange jumpsuit." (Insert involuntary shuddering here, I do not mind orange, but not as the main clothing colour.) Anko made a sceptical noise and slowly intoned

"So, you like my clothing style and my home... though you really are not training rough enough. I could teach you to be strong... if you want." Although her seductive tone had little effect on the ten-year-old, he did wish to be strong, for the sake of justice. So he said

"Hai, I would be grateful Anko-sensei."

Those words sealed the fate of a certain Uzumaki. Two hours later he was running laps around the forest of death... faster than ever before, while Anko ran behind spouting encouragement, along with snakes, Kunai and just about every other dangerous object under the sun.

"Come on, Naruto-kun (the seductive voice still had little effect on said boy, but added to the intimidation factor, which was the whole point), you need to be faster or my snakes will catch..." The momentary silence was intimidating, just to fill it Naruto hollered out

"Ah no no no, teme snakes! You are so evil hebi-sensei! Time to run shan'aro, not fast enough, time for a Kitsune Kai."

With those words Naruto formed his Fox Release seals (One handed Ram and Karana) and pumped his purified Chakra into the legs. Stomping sounds could be heard, and every step the boy took smashed irregular indentations into the land, but the backlash for the force-injected Chakra did speed Naruto up to about 200 of his normal sprinting speed. The sheer amount of Chakra used was astounding for an academy student, who is not supposed to have enough Chakra to use a basic Katon Jutsu (see Sasuke vs Kakashi genin test) yet here he was, using twice that amount with every stop (giant lumbering hop) that he took. Anko decided to keep up the pressure for a while, to accurately gauge his Chakra reserves.

It took half an hour of constant running and using Jutsu for the reserves to fall below 10 and for the high stamina person in particular to be forced to stop, or face a loss of consciousness. Anko called out to Naruto

"Ok kid, time for a well earned breather." Naruto turned around in mid-leap and reversed direction, bounding back to his new sensei's point of forced rest, then just about jumping out of his skin with nervous tension. He yelled out energetically as Anko thought 'He has the stamina of the demon he is named for, well it does make sense, having to deal with it day in and out that he has such an abundance of stamina and Chakra'.

"Ano-sa ano-sa Anko-sensei, you were totally correct; this training is awesome, I am really pushing myself to outpace those damn hebi-things you can summon with that cool Jutsu. Can we keep this up for a while? I like that I had to think on my feet and adapt my new Jutsu to fleeing, it was originally only a control exercise after all."

Naturally Anko was intrigued with this new Jutsu, so Naruto explained why he had made the technique, and how it had aided him in the flight against 'the insane females' although he neglected to mention the reason for the formation of said insane female mob. Anko smirked at this, also neglecting to mention that she had been scouting the boy out, she had seen the entire incident. In truth, she found it highly amusing the ease with which the simple henge had soundly defeated two mid level shinobi. They discussed the various effects the 'foxed' Kawarami Jutsu had on items of differing sizes and qualities. They found that while it would work on living things, the Jutsu took a prohibitive amount of Chakra to do so, and the 'defending' Chakra system could easily fight off the massed, yet poorly concentrated Chakra. Anko stated, just to see if she could rile up the young Jinnchuriki

"You know Naruto-kun, you fight like one of the tailed demons, they use huge blasts of Youki (demonic Chakra) to crumple things, even though only the Kyuubi was said to use unformed or 'raw' Chakra like that effectively. Its a bit funny really, you do have good reserves, but some already call you a demon, what do you think they will say when you fight like one?"

Anko was also testing Naruto, to see if the Youki that was no doubt lurking under his skin somewhere was effecting his brain, and subsequent actions. She understood being considered a monster, as she still used the techniques of Orochimaru, she former Jounin-sensei, who is now a missing-nin (Anko herself is Chunnin level at the moment). Because of her reliance on the Jutsu she learnt from the Hebi-Sannin himself, she is an outcast even among the other Shinobi; few there were who would participate willingly on missions if Anko was with them, due to her past.

The only one she really associated with was Morino Ibiki, and that was because he did not care about her past, only her current usefulness to Konoha. As the covert intelligence expert Ibiki coincidentally happens to be the best Torturer, physically and mentally there is. He expects the full effort of all Shinobi in intelligence missions. Because of all this, she preferred to go on solo missions, and often got the 'fun jobs', as she liked to call them. Specifically the assassination and spying missions. Although only Chunnin rank, she regularily completed A-Class missions on her own, and was expected to take the Jounin test soon. Although some wished it were so, it was unlikely she would tolerate failure. Naruto, after some deliberation opened his mouth and engaged his voice box while expelling concentrated bursts of air in order to communicate verbally with his Sensei.

"Well, I would like to think the villagers would be happy, me acting like the biggest and baddest demon would give them the perfect excuse to bring out the old pitchforks. However that shall not happen, they will not have the chance. This is the style that is being created by and for myself, called the Seppeku Fist.

It is not a clan based style, or one I expect anyone else to be able to learn - simply because it is like committing Seppeku for anyone who does not happen to bear the name of Uzumaki.

I heal fast, and by concentrating Chakra, with practise my probable healing rate should be near-instantaneous by about the age of twenty one. With this style based completely on taking and surviving any and all hits aimed at the body, then using that inevitable attack to launch my own Rendan (combo) this will make the Seppeku Fist Taijutsu style a powerful and unpredictable asset during missions.

It is understood that this style will never be flowing, like a perfectly learnt style hundreds of years old, or even graceful, as the Hyuga's Gentle Fist is rumoured to be. But it will work, and work damn well, and it will be a purely original style. Frankly, who cares what anyone else thinks, they all shall be able to see that I am not a demon, as using Youki as a demon would, it becomes visible to the eye, and red. Even if I ever ranked up there in the power department, I know that human Chakra is blue (and feels like normal energy), not red (which feels truly malevolent). Even stupid villagers will be able to tell the difference, if they cannot, no big deal.

I will simply force them all to see that I am Naruto, not the demon they currently see."

After this lengthy explanation, Anko was happy, although she could not quite pin down the why of it. Setting that aside for the moment...

"Hey gaki, you are two hours late for your little academy you know" Anko stated smugly, trying to make Naruto panic then blindly flee the scene, so she could sort out her conflicting emotions. The boy in question merely calmly yet seriously answered

"That is fine Anko-sensei. I am used to their punishment, if I do not let them get me for something, they ask a question that no genin could hope to answer. I will learn allot more here talking to and training with you. Also this is strangely... pleasant. More so than eating Ramen, meditating (yes he does that voluntarily) or dreaming of beating that stupid Inuzaka into the ground."

Anko was touched, to think the little gaki would enjoy this training session, which had been a physical and mental torture for many aspiring Shinobi. Specifically when she had attempted a brief stint as an academy teacher a year previously (brief due to the complaints of the student's parents that their kids were coming home with hebi bites and moderate cases of poisoning). She was also a little pissed off at the current teachers, while she understood the entertainment of mental torture, it should be dealt evenly out to a class, not singled out to a single boy. She dealt with these emotions the same way she dealt with most things since she herself was dealt with in the same fashion. She shoved the problem away and hollered

"Yosh, then go to the academy now to keep up appearances, then you can train here in the week-day mornings with me while I am not on missions." Contrary to popular belief Konoha does not get ten thousand assassination missions every day, or advanced reconnaissance missions. Anko was off-duty as much, if not more than on. Somewhat similar to the life of a soldier, much of the Shinobi life is spent waiting and also similar to a soldier, the fast times are usually spent dying.

With a "Arigatou Anko-sensei, ja ne" and a bow, Naruto exited the scene, with much running and flapping of arms. The day at the academy was about what he expected, the teacher (today a reasonably fair young man named Mizuki) singled him out only as he came in. Naruto was given one shiftily difficult question and one subsequent hour of detention, and then Mizuki turned his attention back to teaching the class. It was quite amusing to see an uncharacteristically quiet, even sullen Inuzaka clan member in the seat the longest distance possible from Naruto's own. Which happened to be situated next to two female students, (Narutos seat this is) one brown haired girl and another girl with pale hair, similar pupil-lacking pale eyes and a seemingly permanent blush, as she looked (stared using byakugan!) at Naruto, or noticed him glancing in her direction.

The now tan wearing boy was thinking 'hmm that is Hinata I think, she seems less arrogant than most of her family, those cold Hyuga. Come to think of it although she does not talk much, I have never heard her utter a bad word about me. Not even a single muttered demon spawn. I might try and do that friendship thing Anko was talking about.'

While Hinata was trying to control her fluttering heartbeat, at the blonde boy's proximity to her own seat, she caught a look at his new attire. The open Trench coat did little to hide his thin body and the fishnet clothing left even less to the imagination. He was not muscular, as ten-year-old kids rarely are, but there was not an ounce of fat on his skinny carcass either. This 'tantalising' sight proved too much for the young heiress, as she proceeded to swoon and then faint - unfortunately while leaning over slightly to get a batter look at Naruto's chest. An unsuspecting blonde found himself knocked to the floor, with a smiling Hinata asleep in his arms (complete with a single miniature blood trail from her nose). After setting the both of them back on their respective seats, Naruto was confused, but resolved to befriend the girl later; she seemed to be good for a laugh at the very least.

This new schedule went on for the rest of the week, with the incredibly draining training sessions with 'Hebi-sensei' to the boring yet important academy lessons and finally back to the apartment for more Jutsu experimentation. On Friday night Naruto was practising more on one handed sealing, getting the repetitive academy lessons of the week out of his system.

His attempts to befriend the Hyuga heiress had finally met with some success. The girl in question could now communicate with him for a full two words, or three syllables (whichever takes less time) before blushing and looking away.

They now had lunch together too, which was only slightly awkward. This was due to the both of them wanting to eat more than talk, or stare and blush respectively. Although Hinata ate like a lady, whereas Naruto consumed until no more food could be crammed in, they both ate large quantities with equal focus on their food. The boy found it easier to focus on the academy instructors now, even the droning intonation of Iruka's voice during lectures could not send the boy to sleep. After all, he did not want to look lazy or stupid to his new friend, like a certain pineapple hair styled young man in their class.

As Naruto had succeeded in using one handed seals for the Fox Release, the boy now experimented with using one handed seals in his general academy level Jutsu.

Unfortunately for Naruto, the seals required a much higher level of concentration to work at all and required complete mastery of the Jutsu In question, meaning that its every possible use and subtlety had been planned out with time and effort. As Naruto still could not use a conventional Kawarami Jutsu (although he could heat and implode various things with the modified version), the attempt to use one-handed seals with the aforementioned technique did not go according to plan.

Imagine smashing an egg in half and holding the halves in each hand. Now grasp if you can, not spilling any yolk, diving that same yolk equally among the two halves and reattaching the halves together perfectly without spilling the precious viscous liquid. This is a reasonably accurate explanation of one handed sealing, compared to two. Naruto realised the difficulty of his newest endeavour as he attempted the one handed Kawarimi, right before he disappeared, only to rematerialise inside his wall. A shame that one of his legs was still outside that same wall.

The now disembodied limb in question slowly squelched its way to the floor, wiping a trail of blood on the wall's rough surface as it did…

Total silence was heard in the condemned apartment block. For all of two, perhaps three seconds. Then, those as far as the hidden Waterfall village felt more than heard an agonising scream. The boy really let his lungs loose, unfortunately though most felt his agony on some level there was nobody close enough to hear and render him aid. That is assuming any of the village's general populace would have helped him in the first place.

After letting out some of the expression for intense pain, sobbing like a baby, Naruto smashed his way out of the flimsy Jib wall (a kind of crumbly concrete looking material used allot for Australia's walls). He then promptly fell down, having no wall to support him, or two feet to stand on for that matter.

Clutching the amputated limb, the boy dragged it, in between sobbing fits, towards his stump. After feverishly attempting to ram the leg back onto its proper location, he passed out due to blood loss.

Until next time folks…

Ah whom am I kidding, cliffhangers (even ones as poorly executed as my own) were always a sore point for me, good marketing that they are, so back to it:

Naruto awoke in the morning at the usual early hour, got up off the floor wondering what he had been thinking, sleeping there with a semi comfortable and warm bed in the same room. He proceeded to do his usual morning activities, not noticing the missing fishnet legging on his left leg, nor the pink line running concentrically around the same point on his leg.

As he left for the park, to unwind and see if he could find Hinata for more of 'that befriending thing' to occur, the boy never noticed the blood splattered on the wall, puddled over the floor, or the large paw print smack-daub in the middle of the same puddle.

Poor naive Naruto... Will he ever find out about Hinata's 'slight' crush (not to mention the anime/manga stalking she does)? What is with the mysterious footprint, and the recovery of the missing leg? (No kyuubi did not help out, nor could his usual healing power reattach or grow a full leg.) Tune in next time, perhaps you shall find answers. Also next time - some other characters get some screen time, specifically Sasuke (duck butt hair himself), Sakura, Shikamaru, Choji and perhaps a further mystery character.

Anko will still be there too, she has her intimidating eyes set on the young Jinnchuriki... in a completely non Orochimaru way of course (cough little boy fetish cough). Will Anko be arrested? Will Naruto ever stop eating Ramen (sure, like that could happen on this side of hell)? Will I ever write a decent length and content chapter? Once again, tune in next time for all those answers+ an imaginary chopstick. That is right, One - singular imaginary chopstick. Tune in promptly, stock is limited. I still have no idea as to the pairings (if any). Always liked NaruHina but it has been done to death. Never liked Yaoi or NaruTsunade so do not ask please. Other than that I am open to any and all suggestions, feel free to fire away. Please review, I would like to see opinions on my meagre efforts. Goodnight people, even vampires need to sleep and I sure as hell do too.

Forgiveness please for any mistakes or errors. Point them out if you feel so obliged. It all helps to improve my many weaknesses when it comes to the verbal art of writing.


	3. Chapter 3 Spying Is The Life

**Disclaimer:** Naruto is owned by someone/group other than myself. This written work is not written or published for profit, merely for entertainment and enjoyment of the author and any possible readers (the lack of reviews makes me wonder just who reads this.)

Edit 23.4.07 Again, spelling.

Hiya again people, hope you enjoy, it was fun writing it. Also it be an adequate distraction from a certain persistent health problem. Enough of my inspiration, on with the story. Rating and reviewing would be appreciated, to give general ideas on where to head with the story, I didn't really think of anything beyond my take on Naruto's life, not how long to go for, what to not mention/mention in detail (eg wave arc), pairings, etc.

The clash of steel on steel rang throughout the normally tranquil forest glade, as two combatants fought with all they had. The Midday sun shone on the scene of the battle with impartial impunity. The boy, Wielding two Kunai, swiped upwards with all his might, resulting in a swift Thwack of steel on soft flesh, before the gurgling noise that often accompanied the dissipation of a Mud Clone.

"D'arvit" (A shiny needle for whomsoever realises the hopefully obscure reference) the boy swore irately, as he warily glanced at the area around him for his opponent. He was violently reminded of the blind spot of man – behind him, as the cry of "Hidden Snake Hands" rang out from the aforementioned direction.

This resulted in much painful screaming, followed by the 'poofing' sound and smoke cloud from a creature being unsummoned. The boy levered his stiff, sore body to the vertical position known as standing, as he rubbed his lower back while loudly voicing his negative opinion: aka complaining.

"Damn Hebi-sensei, those ones really hurt, It's been so long today that I can no longer even dodge the Hebi-summons. I mean really, would it kill you to go a little easier?"

While saying this, the boy was sticking his lower lip out in a distinctive pout. Anko, the 'Hebi-sensei' herself, merely smiled before slowly, seductively (if you happen to be into that sort of thing) drawling

"Come now Naruto-kun, this is not even a proper warm-up for a Jounin, if you even want to reach that rank you will have to be faster and stronger than most, as your Chakra control is shocking to the point of Irreparability."

(I do not know how one can be seductive while mouthing the word Irreparability but Anko can and does manage rather admirably.)

**Flashback No Jutsu – Earlier that same Sunday morning:**

Anko had Naruto using the academy Jutsu, to see how well he could control their relative finesse. She had been both surprised and pleased when he had used his Chakra as a stilt-like construct during the last week's training, that showed real thought and talent, not to mention good reserves.

Her rarely administered approval was not to be doled out on his Chakra control though, alas for Naruto. After completely failing the Kawarami then creating a single clone via Bunshin that would not fool a Blind man, as it was unspeaking and immobile. The Henge you ask?

Well that is where Naruto's luck completely deserted him, forgetting the incident the last time he had used his latest working Jutsu, he performed a stunning Orokie No Jutsu, leaving an unconscious Anko, bleeding profusely from the nose? (I know while she spied on him using the sexy Jutsu earlier she was unaffected, but the technique is more effective the closer the victim happens to be.)

After Ankos 'revival' and an offhanded comment by Naruto on her sexual preferences, the boy found himself surrounded by snakes, atop a large tree. In any case, Anko decided that Naruto would waste too much time training his control to the point of being effective in combat situations, and decided to teach him techniques that were based almost exclusively off power.

It was a shame that there were few such techniques, so the snake-sensei first asked Naruto if he had any ideas (after eventually dismissing the snakes, allowing Naruto to plummet from treetop to the ground, rather violently.) To which the boy demonstrated his Kitsune Kai and its use with the Kawarimi Jutsu. At that point he remembered his little one-handed seal experiment, so he promptly projectile vomited all over Anko and fainted, clutching his left leg and moaning as he went down.

"Ah AGH, damn brat, my favourite jacket too." (She has several, all identical). Mouthed off Anko as she used a minor water Jutsu followed by an equally minor wind Jutsu (her limit in both elements) to clean and dry her Coat and fishnet clothing respectively. She had avoided the vomit by using a previously summoned snake's shed skin to replace with. Unfortunately Anko is unable to learn the conventional Kawarimi, and had to adapt it to the secret Ninjutsu move – Skin moulting no Jutsu, replacing with a snake skin, in nothing but her own skin.

After quickly reapplying her clothing, she checked the boy, who was unconscious (although in a different position than before) with blood trailing down his nose. Deciding to spare his 'worthless life' until he was at least conscious (again) Anko bided her time. After about ten minutes the boy awoke to a slightly less pissed and mortified Sensei, who only said

" Gaki, never do that again, or speak of it _ever_ again, do I make myself understood?"

"Hai, Hebi-Sensei." (Naruto mumbled with a red hue on his face.)

After the 'unmentionable incident' they worked on a new Jutsu for Naruto. The idea was simple, using the aforementioned minor Wind Jutsu (Kamatiachi, used by Temari and greatly boosted in power by her battle-fan I believe) to pump a massive amount of energy into a wave style attack. She said that the inspiration had come from her time fighting more a far more powerful opponent (a slight understatement, but there it is), who could shoot waves of pure Chakra to deflect solid objects, nullify Chakra based attacks and even Implode a creature's Chakra pathways. This Jutsu would in theory overpower any attack physical or Jutsu, even able to kill humans, while nullifying their Chakra using abilities.

It had three steps, or different applications, to counter physical advances (thrown Kunai, Taijutsu, etc), Chakra attacks and to kill a human (or other beast) respectively.

The first was simple, use as much Chakra as possible, firing out a pulse (think echolocation style) of pure Chakra while trying to focus the wave as it hit objects to increase the damage and stopping power. This required much concentration and a different kind of control, not oft how much to limit for successful execution (as most Jutsu are), but the amount and time/place to funnel 100 possible Chakra into as the Jutsu impacted against solid objects. This Jutsu, properly executed would be both a shield from aforementioned solid objects, and a staging point for step two or three, as it is possible to switch from one to two, to three (in this order only), while still only having to attack with a singular Chakra wave.

The second, to block other Chakra based attacks, was subtle (relatively speaking), It used the same basic principal, the wave, but where it differed was directly before the wave struck. Before contact with the opposing Jutsu, the Wave user would launch a netlike Chakra construct ahead of, yet made from that same wave.

As the hostile Jutsu barrels through this net, it sticks, and relays information back to the user, allowing them to detect the exact amount of control, speed, and specific element/s being used for the Technique. This allows them to fire precise (or large and numerous, in Naruto's case) pulses of Chakra from the wave, to disassemble or at the least weaken the technique, this all in the split second before it Hits the Chakra wave. Upon contact, the wave repels while the Net worms its way through the technique from behind, where the centrifugal force from the hostile technique itself drives the net onwards.

After sufficient netting and contact, the Wave user simply floods the entire network with still more Chakra to rip apart the hopefully severely reduced Jutsu.

It would appear to the naked eye that the hostile technique would hit a (blue for Naruto, red for Kyuubi) wall, before simply evaporating like mist in the midday sun. Without precise control, shooting the Pulses before contact is impossible, although the Kyuubi never needed it, due to his abundance of Chakra, any Human would find they needed to use more pulses beforehand so they could use far less Chakra after contact with their wall.

Any human except for a Jinnchuriki that is, luckily for Naruto, whose shocking Chakra control was the reason for the Wave in the first place. Because of the linked body of the host and captive demon, and the specific nature of the Shiki Fuujin seal, The Foxes demonic Chakra is constantly leaking into Naruto, or more specifically his Chakra pool. This in order for his body to cope with the huge raw power output from the 'leaking teapot' that the Kyuubi has now become. So with more input (Chakra), the Jutsu could still work, even with less pulses, It would merely be harder to defeat high level Jutsu (like a Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu Gama style!) with it, due to their high destructive energy output, compared to Chakra input.

As Naruto gains in control (likely to be a long, slow and agonising process) he can insert more pulses into the Jutsu, increasing its effectiveness. Also the more he uses it to defend against a specific Jutsu/element the more effective it becomes, due to his increased understanding of its destructive force. Therefore he would likely use it against many fire techniques in practise (being in the country of fire), yet few wind-based techniques, making it more vulnerable to that specific elemental type.

The third level of the newly christened Chakra no Tate Jutsu is absurdly simple via comparison.

(I found one name that seems appropriate, literally Shield of Chakra. Deceptively simple eh? Ok I was too lazy to find a shocking name, sue me. It is thought Japanese grammar goes somewhat like this, if wrong, once again feel free to sue.) Is without a doubt the simplest of the three to perform and execute, and for that same reason is the most dangerous. Its design was and is to kill the opponent, via frying their entire Chakra circulatory system. It utilises both the wave and netting from wave level one and two, for successful execution.

Fire the wave, envelop the person or people in the net, drain their Chakra into your wave through aforementioned net, then inject it back in with shards of your own 'dying Chakra' infused in it. This dying Chakra is just that, dislocated energy which seeks its own energy signature, yet it has been modified to reject all other Chakra, including fellow dislocated shards. It will search as much of the surrounding area as possible, before losing momentum and feeding on itself in desperation (the same way some movies I have seen with snakes eating themselves. I need to zap parts of my memory into ambiguity, too many odd thoughts.) This condenses the Chakra, causing the opponent's own Chakra to reject it, and attempt to force it out of the body's system. This results in what happens often to recently condensed or superheated/frozen objects (in this fic anyway), namely Implosion, taking a hefty chunk of native Chakra, flesh, bone, sinew and the rest with it. This causes a chain reaction with the other slivers in a split second, resulting in a corpse that could easily be fit into a matchbox.

Although usually Naruto would need fair control (Genin Sakura level control) to properly create and utilise the shards, with a little experimentation he could use his own unnatural Chakra supply, pre-shattered into his own system to do the same job, injecting little 'Kitsune time bombs' into the target.

The third wave without the shards would merely burn the target's extremities, namely their skin. The damage inflicted this way is minor, unless a truly excessive amount of Chakra is forced into the Jutsu. Any of these three levels can be switched on the go, such as level two to level one, or two and one together, to combat a Jutsu with hidden Kunai, or a Puppet Style attack (objects controlled by Chakra strings).

The area the Jutsu affects is also controllable, although difficult to control; it is similar in execution to the Hyuga Kaiten. Emitted without seals, directly from any number of Tenketsu (Chakra expulsion points), the power is defined by the amount, the area of effect by subtle manipulation of said Tenketsu as the Chakra Exits. For example, using only one Tenketsu in the throat would result in an expanding frontal Wave, narrowing the Tenketsu would minimise the area of effect (to a possible dinner-plate sized wave directly in front of the user, expanding as it went.)

Of course, Naruto and Anko were merely attempting a definitive result for the first level of Ninpou: Chakra no Tate Jutsu. (Ninja Arts: Shield of Chakra technique.) After nearly exhausting the young Jinchuuriki's pool, he managed to stop an attempted spin kick to the temple, via Hebi-Sensei. After stopping the attack cold, Naruto grunted as he hurled out both arms, now shouting out with the effort (insert constipated shout here, hrooooagggh!) Hurling Anko through the air, into and also through three trees and finally into a cliff.

After a mutual period spent recovering, the two discussed the success of the first stage. Tricky to learn, impossible for most, not as much for the initial energy expenditure, but the drain of having to maintain or increase said expenditure. The sad thing is that if an opponent were strong enough physically, he could force the opponent to stay on the defensive or be crushed (think of Fuujin and Raajin, the Stupid brothers in the fillers facing down Ino or Shika, cant remember which one. Or simply imagine a huge Akimitchi arm about to crush the Chakra no Tate user, good luck there buddy, time for me to flee!)

The same opposite applied however, as is evidenced in young Naruto. If he put enough pure power into his defence, it became an attack repelling specific, or all contacted objects with violent force.

The master and apprentice continued with the wave training until Naruto was completely exhausted, then Anko unmercifully beat into him the importance of knowing Taiijutsu, as after using the Wave, Naruto would be vulnerable to attacks. Rather than having to waste multiple Tate's, she felt that the boy needed to be fast and strong enough to engage the target of the Wave before they could counter-attack.

Narutos own style helped greatly here. Who would imagine designing a Taiijutsu style to receive all attacks, and a Ninjutsu to block them? His best advantage in battle would be the greatest of any Nin, surprise. In his case though, the seemingly conflicting style would constantly baffle an unwary opponent, quickly subduing or obliterating them.

She punctuated the Taiijutsu practise with more use of the Hidden Snake Hands, one of the relatively few ninja arts she commonly used. After training Naruto to the ground, they stopped for a lunch break, Anko going back into the forest (don't ask what she eats in there), Naruto wandered over to a certain Ramen stand.

They met again after lunch, in the glade near the Forest of Death, to continue. Anko was surprised that the boy had regained enough Chakra to use more Waves, approximately four, one of which blocked her attack fully, another that repelled her a short distance, along with several Kunai.

This is how they spent their leisure time that day and despite Naruto's loudly voiced complaints, both were there simply because of having little else to do. The boy's 'natural' speedy recovery rate helped a great deal in training, twenty minutes on, then off was more than enough for both to continue.

Kai (This time-skip Jutsu is blatantly stolen, cant remember who from, it was described as a lazy way to do these sort of scenes.) 

After a quick rest, ended by more use of the Hidden Snake Hand no Jutsu, the unlikely pair began their afternoon training again in earnest. Whatever either of them said or acted like on the outside, they were currently exactly where they wished to be, and in the best possible company.

Anko knew about the Kyuubi of course, having fought against the bijuu in her time. She had been leading a literal suicide attack on the Kyuubi in the first day of the assault, In the hopes of affording enough time for the Elite Anbu to mobilise. A singular Tail, courtesy oft Kyuubi had crushed the land surrounding the Ninja, barely brushing by Anko while mince-meating the rest of her team. It was only through sheer dumb luck that she had survived, and without being brutally maimed.

The woman cared not that Naruto was the Kyuubi jailer (or so they say), her life had little meaning or purpose, until her observing the boy as he trained around area 44, her home, she had been running on autopilot. The boy had somehow effortlessly shattered her automatic, stale life. He had led a spark of energy into her personal space and she had latched on, like a badger to a human leg. This happens to be really god damn hard, to those who have not had the misfortune of the experience.

As for the young Jinchuriki, he neither knew about Anko's past nor cared. Having no past to speak of himself, and little real hope for the future, beyond vague dreams of becoming a powerful Jounin to stop the cold glares of the village (through the mutual respect and fear that comes with power). He lived completely in the present, all his thoughts centred on the _now_, not even five minutes ahead in a fight would Naruto contemplate, his strategy in battle or life was always thought of and executed on the fly. As a result he accepted Anko because she accepted him, and thought not at all on the why, focussing on the addictive adrenaline rush that coursed through those spider-web thin veins, filling the body with blood, delicious blood… Ahem back to it.

The two people both spurned by the village in general for events entirely out of their control, both lonely, and though now realising it, in need of a friend to talk to and be with. They had found this in each other.

After the hard, yet mutually satisfying (think whatever you like of my wording, remember their relative age here people. I know your all sick, because I am and as I am the only thing that truly exists, you are all simply weak carbon copy's of me, alike to Naruto's Bunshin attempts. Really, this is what I think… Well not in truth, but hey I had you for a second there… Back to it eh? Ok then) day the two went different ways, Anko back to the Forest of Death to shower and sleep, Naruto to the park in an attempt to find Hinata, whom he had been conversing with quite well lately. Once he had gotten the girl out of her shell, to some extent at least, he found her personality, timid yet not afraid, pleasant. It certainly beat the heck out of the cold eyes of the various villagers, and multiple ignorant Shinobi.

Having found Hinata at said park, Naruto decided the best way to greet her was to leap off a tall tree and alight next to her sneakily (like a ninja!) Unfortunately his luck seemed to be malfunctioning that day, as he landed the traitorous left leg buckled under his weight and the boy sprawled ungraciously on the ground next to the Hyuga heiress.

In truth Naruto had noticed during training that his leg was giving off uncomfortable twinges, or more specifically the area where his fishnet legging was missing, yet he thought little of it. A distinct advantage to being the demon's jailer was the increased healing system, to the point of miraculous regeneration. Normally even a strained ligament would be healed within minutes by the Kyuubi's Chakra coursing throughout the host body. Therefore he had ignored the warning signs, the result being his current less than grateful entry into the park.

Hinata had started as Naruto crash-landed next to her, but soon calmed down when she saw the only person in her mind silly enough to do something so foolish looking.

"Oh, h-hello Naruto-Kun, h-how are you?"

After picking himself up, then plopping down onto the ground, Naruto replied

"Not bad Hinata-Chan (insert blushing Hinata here), just training to make my newest Jutsu with Sensei. It's really awesome to finally have a technique that suits my style… Large and damaging, ehhehe."

Rubbing his head sheepishly, as he admitted his lack of subtlety (something usually required for a Shinobi) Naruto almost missed the nervous glance that Hinata gave him. He did catch it and asked

"Ne, Hinata-Chan (more blushing), did you want to ask something?"

"H-hai, may I ask (Naruto tensed, even with Hinata, his only like-aged friend, he did not want to explain the Chakra no Tate Jutsu before it was perfected.) D-do you think you c-c-could help me with t-training?"

"Eh, sure Hinata-chan, you do not even have to ask, what with specifically? I heard Iruka-sensei droning about the Hyuga's powerful Taiijutsu style, so what kind of help is needed?

Taking an emotional leap into space, Hinata threw herself on the fire of possible ridicule to explain, with many a stutter, to Naruto about her families Style and Techniques. That she did not truly fit in with them and wanted to expand her knowledge of Taiijutsu and general Jutsu to become more unpredictable in any situation.

After all, the Ninja is not traditionally the strongest meathead out there, but the tricky shadow, never truly seen, as it ghosts around, assassinating and pillaging upon command or whim. The Hyuga clan is renown for being the strongest, which while important, is not the true goal of the Shinobi.

Hinata knew she would never accomplish as much as was expected of her in the clan techniques or style, thus she wanted to become like a Kenpou (Chinese martial arts) user. That is to say unpredictable, not drunk. To this end, she had to experience more attack patterns, from a wide variety of opponents in order to find the right moves to incorporate into the Hyuga Jyuuken Style.

Naruto was surprised to say the least. The heiress of the most powerful clan wanting to learn other styles? He was correct in assuming that this would be a blow to the prideful Hyuga when they found out. This reason, along with the desire to help his friend (and divert some of Ankos near sadistic attention) made him utter

"Wow Hinata, it is an honour to be asked for help, tell you what, Hebi-Sensei will have some ideas, she is really smart, perhaps even something to throw those Hyuga guards off your trail."

Hinata agreed and the two went back to their separate homes, Hinatas two branch member guards collecting her as she went. One of the guards, an older woman thought to herself 'Didn't know that the girl swings that way. Better not let Hiashi-Sama find out, or there will be hell to pay', she had heard some of their conversation and noticed Hinata blushing and stuttering quite badly, as she only usually did with her father (though for different reasons obviously). As is usual with many, she saw what she wanted to see, adding two and two to come up with five.

After the Hyuga walked away, Naruto dispelled the Henge he had been wearing, which had made his appearance into that of a civilian blonde pig-tailed girl (think of just before the fillers, Narutos attempt to evade Sakura as the bikotchu latches onto 'her' ass).

"Heehee, stupid Hyuga guards, didn't even use the Byakugan to check for a Henge. Guess I shall talk to sensei before the academy tomorrow."

Homewards bound, Naruto was ensnared by the heavenly (to him) smell, wafting from a certain Ramen stand. After hollering out a greeting to Teuchi and Ayame, his daughter, he sat down next to a pink haired girl and inquired as to the nature of the delicious aroma.

"Ah Naruto, you are just in time for the latest Ramen flavouring, shark-fin Ramen (take that Kisame). I assume you would like a bowl?"

After a loud and resounding Ossu (yes sir, I believe) Naruto impatiently bounced around his seat, driving the others slightly mad. After receiving his food, spouting 'itadakimas' he then proceeded to noisily, yet efficiently devour the Ramen bowl. The pink haired girl found herself disgusted by the sight, yet fascinated by the sheer amount of food going in – if eating contests were the yolk of the Shinobi life, Naruto would be the Hokage and Ino would forever remain a Genin.

After polishing off his third bowl, Naruto slowed down (though by no means stopping) to talk to the pink haired occupant of the seat-over (did I mention the bubblegum pink hair?)

After the mutual name exchange and introduction, Naruto learning that her name was Sakura asked her why she was at the Ramen stand. She told him that it was a place to unwind, in her home her mother and father shouted a lot, at both Sakura and each other. For her part, Sakura noticed the odd clothing choice of the young boy, though she did not remark on it.

Recalling a previous encounter, Sakura did not really want to know if the blonde was any relation to the 'crazy purple haired kuinoichi' Ino had told her so much about. Ino is pretty much the gossip guru in this fic; she likes to know everything.

Flashback No Jutsu – two weeks ago. 

Walking along the streets of Konoha of a fine morning, one might hear a minor commotion. This came in the form of two distinctive young girls stampeding down the street, complete with cries of "Ino-pig" and "forehead-girl". The two were putting so much attention into their insults and power-walking race (think Naruto episode three) that they missed a purple haired woman walking along the street, eating from a Dango stick.

The resultant collision made the woman drop her last Dango ball onto the ground, where she blankly stared from it, to the speechless young girls.

"You two… Are so dead!" With that, Anko lunged forwards and Sakura + Ino ran for their very lives. After much mayhem, including both girls being dumped into a large Dumpster, and trapped there for half an hour by two vicious looking snakes; Anko went back to the Dango stand for another stick or twenty.

Wonder why so many high level Shinobi are not rich? Wonder no more as they all have debilitating addictions. Think about it Asuma has the ciggies, Anko the Dango and the rest.

Kai 

After Naruto left the stand, the conniving wench that is ten-year-old Sakura met up with Ino and whispered a dastardly plan into her ear: they were to spy on Naruto to see if he was Anko's relation!

The two snuck around the street, finding Naruto quickly, his attention being captured by a Shinobi weapons store, with many fine quality implements on sale. As he tried to enter though, the Owner Shooed him out, saying 'his kind' was not served in there. If you need a reference think on how black people were treated in the olden day America, with some areas like laundromats having 'Whites Only' and other such racist shit (forgive my language, there are only two things I hate, people that are intolerant of others and the Dutch. Another something for whomsoever can state this not-so subtle movie quote).

The two girls were surprised, they had not seen anything to indicate that Naruto was a bad guy, after watching several of his attempts to buy various things, they actually felt some empathy for the Trench-coat wearing Blonde. After he finally bought something in a store, a make-it-yourself Ramen kit, he headed for his residence. Naruto used a monthly kit each week, as they were cheaper than he was used to (being ripped off for the instant variety), the boy ate as much as possible. Which is, as you all no doubt know, a large amount indeed.

They were now shocked at the condition of Naruto's flat complex, being one of many buildings that had been condemned after the Kyuubi assault, due to little water pressure and electricity. Konoha had never renovated the area because of development on the village outskirts, increasing the size of the village and having to rebuild some of the defensive wall.

After their usual loud power-walk to their respective homes, in which their usual spirit was decidedly lacking, the two said goodnight and entered their own dwellings. Both thought 'time enough tomorrow to spy more on Naruto and see if he has any secrets'.

7:00 Monday morning (the following day)

This morning finds Anko and Naruto at it again. Cough. Training that is. (Hey I happen to be a sick person, deal with it. Even enjoy it neh?) First were light warm up stretches, during which Anko would occasionally strike out, forcing Naruto to block with whichever limb happened to be handy.

Then came the usual running by Naruto, with his Chakra wedges to elevate and speed him away from the rampaging Kuinoichi, they also allowed him to spin and twist in mid-air, avoiding almost all of the summoned snakes. (Argh, that one got me in the ass!)

Last but not least was the Wave training, where Anko would throw several Kunai, Shuriken and lastly herself at the boy, while he would attempt to repel them all with as few Chakra Waves as possible. As the wave, once fired, billowed outwards at a controllable speed, it could last more or less time depending on the concentration of the user, weakening as it expands due to the increased Chakra requirement.

Naruto was improving with the Wave oft the Chakra no Tate. He blocked one third of the weapons, slowing or changing the course of all the others so they did not damage him (imagine a knife being thrown through thick jelly, losing momentum and accuracy.) He even managed to halt Anko in her tracks and repel her cursing form about a metre. Anko had her revenge of course, using the Sen'eijashu (Hidden Snake Hand, I finally looked it up) after the Wave broke down, wrapping the unfortunate boy before tossing him into a nearby tree.

"Never let your guard down Naruto-kun" she teased. "You should have been ready to evade and counter attack then, the wave doesn't use that much stamina, just a lot of Chakra."

She is underestimating the difficulty of the Wave, as she cannot herself perform the Jutsu, as do most who can give advice on a subject without participating in the work. Naruto thought this was merely another training method, to increase his Stamina as well as Capacity and Wave abilities, as indeed it was. Albeit not a conscious method on Anko's part, but a method nonetheless.

After their hercluean (for Naruto) effort, the boy rested for a while, then ran off saying

"Oh crap, late for the academy, see you later Hebi-Sensei!"

Usually Naruto cared not at all for how late he was, but today was different, Iruka-sensei had promised that the latest student would be cleaning the academy toilets after school, as the cleaner had quit in disgust. Disgust I say, for the appalling Graffiti that a certain blonde student had artistically attached to the walls and floors, after learning that the aforementioned cleaner hated 'the demon brat'.

Suffice to say Naruto had little intention of cleaning up his own handiwork, it would be in his view, a colossal waste of time. He also wanted to talk to Hinata about training. Anko had told the boy she would only train him, that if _he_ wanted to help the girl, he could do so alone. While this might deter most, not Naruto, he wanted to help Hinata and gain in experience of the Chakra no Tate at the same time.

Although the boy was late, more so than most, there were still two missing class members. He sighed in relief as he took the seat next to Hinata, his newest (and second) friend. She had kept the seat available by being uncharacteristically curt with anyone who moved to sit there, stating quickly, if timidly that the particular seat was taken.

The last to arrive were Ino and Sakura, who had both been shocked to the point of temporary paralysis at the level of sheer power Naruto had displayed. You guessed it; they spied on his training with Anko.

The two girls were told that they would get the cleaning job, despite their loud and vigorous blaming of the other for being late to class. Naruto snickered softly, bringing the attention of a certain boy upon his blonde head.

Inuzaka Kiba, seeing that Hinata had been saving the seat for none other than the class dobe Naruto, was peeved. No, it was safe to say the Inuzaka was thoroughly pissed off.

Having a crush on Hinata as he did, Kiba couldn't bear to see her with Naruto and as his ankle had been healed a few days back, was rearing to have another 'friendly' spar with the blonde boy. Luckily for Kiba (or not, whichever the case may be) after Iruka went through his usual two hour drone there was a Taiijutsu practise session, and by random lot, the feral boy had his chance for… Revenge!

The word revenge is just plainly superb. In all ways, it is superior to justice. Guess you all know if I would be an evil guy in any anime/superhero thing… definitively.

After being given the signal to start, Kiba used his Gijyuu Ninpou, Shikyaku no Jutsu to become incredibly animalistic, what with the claws growing, not to mention his usual miniature increased incisors. In response Naruto merely smiled open mouthed, something he did not usually do, exposing his own larger than average 'vampire teeth'.

Squaring off, Kiba launched himself at Naruto, who merely stood there, as before. Actually learning from his previous mistakes, Kiba stopped abruptly before reaching Naruto, jumped up and with a spin kick the blonde 'kissed the earth'. Gloating Kiba taunted his opponent, not noticing the handseals the downed boy made, a one handed Karana and Ram seal, respectively.

"Hey fool, you don't look so smart-assed now do you, heh you don't even deserve to be here, you are just a dobe who cant even use the Ninja arts!" Kiba was almost strutting now.

Naruto, still prone on the ground, turned his head, looked Kiba in the eyes, as he muttered "Kitsune Kai", using both curled up legs to spring fluidly to his feet and formed the quickly formed Kawarimi seals. As Kiba started forwards again, a rock shifted under his foot.

It then imploded, pulling his body down to the ground, left leg first, so he was in a kind of one legged kneeling position as Narutos leg booted him in the face, with all the momentum the 'dobe' could put behind his own left leg.

Suffice to say Naruto stopped then, as poor Kiba had currently managed to land on his already damaged nose, almost flattening it into oblivion. The academy nurse took him away, yet again, moaning and bleeding, looking like he had just been caught in a perverted act of dastardly proportions.

This proved too much for our hero, who fell to the floor, shaking with laughter and comments like "haahaa, got him dead centre. Stupid dog breath!" At this point the forgotten (nearly forsaken) dog Akamaru, hearing his master being insulted after being beaten, latched himself onto Naruto's left ankle, who didn't even notice.

After a bit more rolling and laughing Naruto picked himself up off the floor and began to walk away, noticing a weight on his left lag as he did so, although he couldn't feel the resistance. Looking down he saw Akamaru, whom he then removed and said softly to

"Wari wari (sorry sorry) Akamaru, it was mean of me to insult your master, but he did deserve it, flaunting his clan techniques. I just could not resist using a personal technique. The dog yipped slightly and ceased attempts to attack the Jinnchuriki, who set him down and went to watch Hinata and the others sparring.

Ino and Sakura were as is usual, fighting (friendly sparring, what sparring?), with Ino eventually winning by yanking Sakura's long hair until she gave in to the 'intense agony'. Never having had long hair, I do not know just how much yanking it would hurt, as opposed to having been kicked in the face, I do know all too well the pain of that.

Hinata was sparring against another female, one Naruto did not know. They lightly exchanged blows and counters, while moving at maximum speed (not fast, they are pre Genin you know). It seemed the two didn't want to hurt each other but still wanted to train seriously.

The rest were generally using the academy taught Taiijutsu skills, trying to beat down their opponent with those basic, yet effective movements. Uchiha Sasuke was facing Abarume Shino, who was merely dodging and blocking all the 'prodgies' attempts to beat him into submission. This frustrated the survivor to no end, none of his attempts were working, so he used a basic fire Jutsu, (you all know the one) to try and scare his opponent into fighting seriously.

Unfortunately he aimed his Jutsu to the left, which was the direction in which Shino dodged. Unable to stop, the Uchiha watched as his fireball hit the silent young man head on.

"Omigod I'm so sorry, are you ok Shino? Please don't be dead… please." Sasuke ran up to the smouldering form of his fellow academy student only to see… Burnt bugs? As he looked around for an explanation, he saw the two laziest students there, Shikamaru and Chouji, who were supposed to be sparring against each other, talking with… Shino, who looked a little bit miffed that his precious bugs were now burning. Shino then said, with his flat voice

"You should not have done that, Uchiha Sasuke, however if you want a fight…"

He then leapt into action, while the lazy bums Shika and Chouji watched, awed as the Abarume fighter used his remaining bugs to leech away the Chakra reserves of his opponent, while beating him black and blue with academy learnt Taiijutsu. After an extremely one-sided fight, Shino stopped and gathered his bugs to him; they swept under his jacket.

He went to stand by the lazy bums again, but when they gave him odd looks and a muttered 'scary' from Shika, the boy moved off to stand on his own. Having witnessed the fight, Naruto walked up to Shino and leaned up on the wall next to him, neither boy feeling the need to speak. They stayed that way for a few minutes, watching the sparring, before Naruto turned to Shino and said

"Nice technique, it is good to see the teme put in his place by his betters neh?"

Shino raised one eyebrow, and let out an affirmative "hn".

After the sparring finished Shino sat next to Naruto, who was next to Hinata on the end of the row. They did not speak much, but neither felt it was necessary. It was the beginning of a strong friendship for the two.

Naruto explained his plan to Hinata, after his training, he would meet up with her at the park, they would use the Bunshin and Henge techniques respectively to fool the Branch member guards, while finding a suitable area for sparring. As they both needed practise, Hinata would utilise new physical attacks, while Naruto would defend with the Chakra no Tate as best he could.

The plan went off without a hitch. The young heiress had never attempted to cheat or deceive the guards before, so there was absolutely no reason to scout out with the Byakugan. After the training Hinata would return to the park, Kawarimi her Bunshin, walk away with the guards then dispel the 'female Naruto' Bunshin.

The next day was the new norm for Naruto. Early starts, long training session, academy and more training then late afternoon sparring with Hinata. He did not notice the two bright-haired girls from his class observing them covertly again, although Anko certainly did. Her thoughts at the time ran something like this: 'Hn, he has stolen two of the Uchiha kid's fangirls it seems. How very amusing, I shall let him find out when he is good enough to sense them himself.'

While this was going on, another Konoha resident who favoured the trench coat happened to be in the area. He was not there for training, or even spying, no the young man called Aburame Shino was there on a hunt. A bug-hunt to be specific. The Uchiha's attempt to make Shino fight him had been successful, but at the cost of much of Shino's resident insectile population. He was poking about the forest, searching for the various required bugs to replenish his depleted stock.

A single bug came to Shino, one of his scouts, it perched on his finger and Shino commanded oft it "tell me".

It spilled the secret; thus the boy flitted quietly through the trees, landing on one near a clearing in the forest. He watched Naruto using his Jutsu, though no sound was emitted from his personage, Shino was impressed. He decided not to get on Naruto's bad side, as Kiba had consistently managed.

The boy would be a real juggernaut one-day, immovable and unstoppable, charging onwards against all odds. As it was, to a ten-year-old he was strong, like tractor (as the Russians eloquently put it.)

After early training, there was the academy again. Starting to wear thin on the young boy, the pointless hours spent listening to Irukas hypnotic voice, sparring with others with whom he did not dare to use his techniques on (Kiba was an exception).

This is mostly due to Ankos previous explanation of how the Genin would be grouped in three years, namely the best and worst, average, etc. The boy was aiming for average grades, so he wouldn't be in a team with the lazy Nara and fat Chouji. He did not want to be best or worst, having to be with either Sasuke or the loud Kiba in that case. Top Average would have resulted in those whom he knew nothing about, always a risk for the prudent Shinobi. Much better off with hopefully teaming up with Hinata and Shino, the only students he felt he could relate to.

He merely practised his Seppeku Fist style on his sparring partners. It was an effective way of learning another's strength, standing up to and taking their most powerful attacks. Finally near fruitless attempts to master the academy Ninjutsu, he had only mastered the basic Jutsu for untying rope and the Henge to date (two out of four is about average, neh?)

The only other thing to do was talk to Hinata about various things, from their daily sparring to life in the Hyuga compound. She was more talkative now that they knew each other better, though still timid and would regale him with softly spoken tales of her childhood.

Happy times spent with family, and old ones, most now passed on. The only close family she had left was her Father, who was cold all the time due to her lack of skill in the Hyuga techniques. There was also Hanabi of course, but the little girl had quickly caught on to her fathers cold attitude, to Hinata and others. This was a reason Hinata was and is trying to gain strength, to prove to Hanabi that the Hyuga way is not necessarily the best, before her sister became too rigid, refusing to use any other Jutsu, as did most Hyuga (like Neji).

After the drudge of the academy there was another quick one-hour training session with Anko, who teased him about cutting the training short to see 'his girl'. Turning a magnificent shade of red, Naruto screeched (in his most annoying treble voice)

"She is only a friend, Hebi-Sensei. Jeez one would almost think you are jealous."

After a satisfying time of snakes slithering rampant (as opposed to running rampant), Anko let Naruto go, she in the meantime 'poofed' off to her favourite Dango stand. Damned addicts.

After Naruto met up with Hinata in the park, using their decoy trick with the Henge and Bunshin, they found an unoccupied training area to work in. This day it was the Hyuga pride taijutsu, Juken, Verses the Seppeku Fist, Naruto's unorthodox Style. It was not going well for our young subject, who was currently getting beaten black and blue.

The idea of the Seppeku Fist is to not block, but receive all attacks, then counter, but the Juken blocks Tenketsu, preventing Jutsu and Chakra usage in those areas. Meaning that by taking the attacks, Naruto limited himself to Taijutsu, until such time as the Tenketsu opened naturally (usually overnight), this prevented the use of his Chakra no Tate Jutsu.

The two, seeing this problem experimented with using Chakra expelled from a Tenketsu before the Juken strike landed, to absorb or block the damage. This was also progressing slowly, Hinata knew it was possible to expel Chakra from any or all Tenketsu (via Kaiten), but most ninja only learn to use the hands and feet. Meaning that it is very difficult to learn to use any other Tenketsu, to the point of requiring years of dedicated practise.

After the afternoon's training ended, Naruto had succeeded in not blocking, but reducing the impact of a singular strike. He flooded and compacted his Chakra to the general point of attack before it landed. He had not the control or experience to do so for a single Tenketsu, yet his way made it easier for them to reopen, only taking about two hours, instead of a day. With time and practise, the boy would learn to focus and pinpoint the defence, maximising its effectiveness. It would also, in theory, protect the vulnerable parts of the body from Chakra based attack - namely the inner organs.

They called this Jutsu the Chibi Chakra no Tate, (mini/young shield of Chakra, I'm not good with Japanese, as you can tell. The two said their goodbyes and went their separate ways, Hinata to Kawarimi with her Bunshin, and Naruto to make some Ramen at his residence. The Bunshin had taken a reasonable amount of Hinata's concentration and reserves to maintain, granted it is not a huge requirement, but as with using weights, they do not get any lighter (despite numerous fics of people unmoving when they put on weights, then bouncing around three hours later. Yeah right, they would still barely be able to walk.) It was good endurance training for the hopefully future Kunoichi.

This schedule was ongoing throughout the next four days. Naruto started to improve with the Chakra no Tate, both the level one and Chibi versions. He could now block near half of the thrown pointy objects aimed at his shields, and slow the rest down to non-dangerous speeds. Anko he could hold off about a third of the time, only managing to repel her about once in a day.

With the Chibi, it now reduced all Juken striking to a two hour Tenketsu recovery, unless Naruto had a lapse in concentration, as he had when Hinata led him into a rope trap, swinging him upside down into the air, for her to hit a few times. She truly was showing skill, and was willing to seriously fight Naruto after he explained to her that they both needed to do their best, or the training would be pointless for the both of them.

Insert a horrified Hinata here, at the thought of not training with 'her Naruto-kun', changing to a determined young girl, ready to beat Naruto bloody in order to remain his friend. It did not hurt of course, his demonstrating to her his quick healing ability, after he broke a finger trying to block her Juken with an open-handed slap.

Hinata was improving steadily as well, her speed and general stamina was up, due to trying to keep up with the inexhaustible blonde all afternoon long. She was also more devious, trapping Naruto often and attacking from unexpected angles.

All in all, both academy students had begun their path to power… or so they hope. On the fine morning of Saturday, the birds were singing, with their chirp, chirp and their tweet, tweet splat.

Everything was going according to plan; Naruto had completed training with Anko in the morning, ate lunch (guess which stand he gravitated towards) and can now be found with Hinata. The two were going all out, what with the Juken verses Seppeku Fist. (Gentle Fist Verses Suicidal Fist.)

Watching from above, a sinister figure bided his time. He was furious at the fact Hinata wanted to spend time with the dobe, his only thought was to defeat and humiliate Naruto in battle. This would, in his thoughts force Hinata to see who was the better 'man'. When Naruto was fending off Hinata's particularly vicious attack he struck, with a cry of Tsuga (Piercing Fang).

What resembled a twister bore down upon Naruto, who did not seem to notice, he continued to block Hinata's assault, his apparently calm demeanour only belied by the hardening of his usually tranquil eyes into icy orbs.

Narrowing those orbs as Kiba neared, Naruto whispered, for Hinatas ears only, Ninpou: Chakra no Tate Jutsu. Hinata saw Naruto pumping an unusually high amount of Chakra into the shield, even for his usual effort.

To her eyes, a blue dome formed from a single Tenketsu on the boy's back as the Inuzaka impacted with the shield, errant blasts of Chakra emanating in all directions. The shield was slowly being twisted by Kiba's rotation, warping and flexing, yet Naruto was holding on through sheer effort, he could not move away for fear of Hinata being hit.

This stand off continued, Kiba attempting to drill through the Shield, Naruto pumping Chakra into it at a prestigious rate to keep it functional. In the end it came down to simple stamina – Naruto had more. The rotation of the Tsuga slowed, and ceased, leaving an astonished Kiba hanging in mid air for but a split second, before the Wave of Chakra blasted into him.

Spiralling nearly out of control, the Wave carried the terrified boy right into the tree he had been spying on Naruto and Hinata in previously. There was an audible crunch upon impact, as the unfortunate Inuzaka had two ribs crushed by the impact.

Hinata went off to get help, while Naruto bandaged his chest, with a spare bandage usually used in his own training. Kiba moaned, and panting with the effort, gasped out

"Why… are you helping me, Naruto?"

"Because, you are not my enemy. I do not have any idea why you attacked me, nor if you were trying to get to Hinata, but if you put her in danger again, I will not be so gentle. You have been warned."

With that the blonde walked off, not wanting to answer any questions Kiba's 'rescuers' would ask, seeing him there. Hinata brought back Hana, Kibas older sister, whom she told she had heard Kiba crying out in pain as she was training alone in training area 5 (yes it's a made up area, sue me.) When it came down to it, Kiba said he had been training, perfecting the Tsuga (as indeed he had, in a way) when he spiralled out of control and into a tree. Again, not that inaccurate a statement.

Naruto and Hinata, meeting up again in a different area, decided to take the rest of the day off. Naruto was tired and had expended almost all of his energy in stopping Kiba. As he left, his mind was remembering the way the shield tried to spin with Kiba's attack, how he had forced it to stop, keeping it solid. If it could be forced to spin the opposite way before contact…

Although he did not realise it, this is a similar method to the Hyuga Kaiten. It is even probable that a rotating attack used on a shield of Chakra is what gave thought to the original Kaiten.

Of course, Naruto is not good enough to reliably expel Chakra from every point, or even any one point besides the hands. He can do it, but not all of the time, more a fluke than anything else at this moment.

Walking home with arms loosely swinging, head down, Naruto did not notice the person standing in front of him until he bounced off said person.

"Omph" was his inarticulate utterance as he rebounded off what looked like a solid human wall. He looked up, and seeing a massive version of Choji, apologised

"Sorry Akimitchi-sama, I was not looking at the path."

"Hmm" The big man boomed, as the glass in nearby windows rattled.

"That's ok kid, it happens. Where were you off to with such preoccupation?"

Thinking for a moment, the boy replied

"Well, homewards bound, as I don't really have much money for old man Teuchi's Ramen right now."

"You like Ramen eh, hey you must be the kid who buys so many kits from my new store, the monthly ones! Oh and please call me Chouja, the 'Sama' sounds really old." The man placidly intoned.

"Yes, Ramen is the best Akim - uh Chouja-sama, I am grateful to your store, your homemade Ramen lets me eat exactly what I want, all the time. Well, I had best be off, see you later!"

With that the blonde ran off, to prepare and consume some of his Ramen, mouth watering at the thought. As Chouja watched him rocket off, he thought 'Not such an evil looking kid to me. Anyone who likes Ramen cant be bad, perhaps the council is just plainly wrong about him.'

The big man left to find his drinking buddies, presumably Ino and Shikas fathers.

After his Ramen (mushroom & Rat, yes rat, some eat it) Naruto went through his nightly activities. Stepping out of the shower, he overbalanced and fell over.

"What the hell?"

Looking back at the shower, his leg had not journeyed to the floor as he had, it stood there motionless. After crawling to the leg in question, he saw that it was hollow and metallic. Upon closer inspection the boy reattached it to his stump, where it seamlessly joined, once again appearing totally realistic.

"Well, that is interesting. Now that explains why it was aching before. The only question is what the hell happened to my original leg?

I don't remember cutting it off, or losing it. Very odd, oh well now I have a spare storage device and if anyone stabs me in that leg, it wont matter. Yosh time for sleep."

With that, the now crippled (although he would not think of it that way) Jinnchuriki jumped into his bed, prosthetic leg and all.

The leg in question looks like a prosthetic limb when unattached – plastic, metal, rubber, etc. When attached however, it drains a small yet constant amount of Chakra to maintain a small Genjutsu, making it appear a solid regular limb. It uses the same energy source to become as swift and dexterous as a natural limb, making it near undetectable. The Byakugan is capable of detecting the Chakra, yet not the prosthetic itself, the energy acting as a smokescreen.

Ok that is another chapter, I was going to reveal the fake leg thing in a battle next chapter, but needed an ending for this one. Might still do that of course, having Naruto fight, then his leg unexpectedly falls off! Please any rate/reviews would be appreciated; I have very little idea as to what is good in this story and what is lacking. Well besides the fic in general being lacking that is.

Ok bye now people, seeyall next time eh? (Or not they say, while disconnecting the Internet socket and gluing it closed forever.)

Ah, Ah it occurs to the Author that some may appreciate a little translation bit here. Don't know, comment in review if you like the idea or not if you would be so kind, in the meantime, I will do it.

Hebi – Literally snake

Hai – Yes

Ossu – Sir (often said as yessir)

Jutsu – Technique

Chakra – Energy, when used in Naruto it is considered a combination of the energy of the body, and the energy obtained from physical and mental training.

Ramen – A meal somewhat like 2 Minute Noodles, but with differing meats and vegetables in them. Considered by Naruto to be a staple meal.

Hyuga – A family based clan in the Naruto world. Split into the main, and the slave-like Branch family.

Kaiten – A Hyuga main family Technique. Otherwise known as Heavenly Spin (whirl, something like that)

Juken – Gentle Fist. The Taijutsu style of the Hyuga clan, branch and main family alike. Using the index and middle fingers to inject damaging Chakra into an opponent, potentially damaging organs or closing Tenketsu (Chakra points).

Tsuga – (Fang Destroyer) Technique, used by the Inuzaka clan family members. Kiba and Akamaru are the only ones who have been seen using it, so far.

Chakra No Tate – Shield of Chakra Technique. Created by Naruto, it is similar to the Kaiten, without the spin to add power and flexibility. Three separate levels, Naruto can only use level one, to repel Physical objects. (A Jutsu created by the Author, for this fic).

Jinnchuriki – Demon Container. Or one who has a demon contained in their body. There have been three so far in the Naruto world, Gaara, Naruto himself and the Nebi (Two Tailed Cat) chick.

Taijutsu – Hand to hand combat Techniques. Also includes styles, such as the Seppeku Fist (suicide fist) and Goken (Strong Fist) styles.

Shuriken – Four bladed throwing stars, can be in fold down large form or small, palm-sized version.

Kunai – Throwing Knives. Double bladed, short like daggers and good for stabbing as well as thrown.

Sen'eijashu (literally Hidden Snake Hand Technique) An almost unknown Jutsu, thought to summon several snakes from the arms of one's coat, to attack or immobilise a number of victims.

Flashback no Jutsu – The lazy way of doing timeskips in reverse, in other words winding the story to a previous point in its timeline.

Kai – Dispel/release, used in several aspects, with the Ram handseal to dispel Genjutsu (illusions made from Chakra to affect the mind) or to cancel a Flashback no Jutsu.

Kitsune Kai – literally Fox Release/dispel. A technique once again created by Naruto, to purify and refine his Chakra in preparation for various Jutsu, can modify a Jutsu's effect.

If used with Kawarimi (replacement Technique) the object to be replaced with will heat or implode based on energy input.

Bunshin – Clone Technique. Used to make an illusion of Chakra, that is to all appearances a sold person. Will dispel upon physical contact with its 'skin'.

Henge no Jutsu - Transformation Technique. Allows for the user to copy another's body, down to the clothing and miscellaneous items.

Naruto's Orokie no Jutsu is merely the Transformation Technique, using a naked (or semi-naked) Female version of himself to distract and disable male Shinobi.

Think that is it, If something is missed, sue me. For real, goodbye now.


	4. Chapter 4 The Pain Which Is Life

Disclaimer: This author does not own Naruto. This written work is not made or distributed for profit in any form, merely for personal and public entertainment/enjoyment. The Author does not own anything in this fic, besides plotline twists, etc and even those are welcomed for use by anyone. I would be honoured if someone liked one of my ideas and wanted to use them. Please if you do, mention where the idea came from.

When you get down to it, all works are influenced by everything the Author has ever read, watched or done. The idea of plagiarism is almost a joke in that context. Unfortunately the law sees things differently, hence this disclaimer and the need for lawyers.

On with the story, I am a little stuck on what to write, not liking the idea of a timeskip oft an extended period. Subsequently do not expect huge quality and length for this one (although if you have read the other chapters that hope is likely already sufficiently trampled).

The sun was not setting, late Sunday afternoon. It had already done so, twenty minutes prior. A young boy was rushing a girl of equal age home after an excessive training session, in which the boy had acquired many bruises and cuts.

There was reasonably extensive damage to his large tan trench coat, as well as his Fishnet under-clothing, although there did not seem to be any serious wounds. The girl by contrast was in good health. Her also large coat lined with fur on the hem not seeming to have any damage on it at all. She was though a little out of breath at the pace the ten-year-old boy was setting, as he fearfully and loudly proclaimed to the world at large

"D'Arvit, wari wari Hinata, I forgot the time when we both succeeded in our new Jutsu. Your crazy dad is going to kill me, I just know it." At this point the boy was shivering in trepidation and more that a small dose of fear (terror).

Hinata, in a calming voice said

"Its ok Naruto-kun, I will just tell Otou-san that its my fault for wanting more Ramen after training, even though that was your desire, before we realised the time."

"Hn, yes your right it is, ah well what's done is done." Said Naruto as he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, as he does.

The Hyuga compound loomed closer; the massive complex would have blocked out the afternoon sunlight, if there were any to be found that is. As Naruto ran up, clutching Hinatas hand, nearly dragging her along, he saw an ominous sight.

The Hyuga main family head, Hiashi was standing at the front gates of the compound, talking to three branch members there, as they neared they heard him ordering the branch members out to find Hinata and bring her back at any cost.

"Um … Otou-san Gomen-asai (Sorry) we lost track of time at the Ramen stand, it's just so…"

Hinatas timid voice petered out by the last few words at the stern look on her father's face. He told the other Hyuga to go back into the complex for a while, while he talked with his daughter. This included the normal gate guards.

Hiashi thought about all the words to say in this grim (in his mind) situation. The importance of the Hyuga heiress maintaining proper dignity at all times, even if she insisted on her friendship with the blonde. Her failure to do so, as she was carted to her own home by the same blonde, acting decidedly ungracious at such time. His musing was interrupted by a mere whisper.

"Good bye fool."

A part of the night coalesced into a man enshrouded in a long white cloak, forming the final handseal in an unknown set, before quickly extending his hand, palm open, towards the little group.

As the mysterious figure once again whispered 'fool', Naruto surged forwards, knocking the surprised and slow acting Hyuga head out of the way while stepping squarely in front of Hinata.

A blinding flash of light could be seen, as a streaming bolt of lightning erupted from the man's outstretched hand, arcing towards Naruto. He however had formed his own seals and shouted out as the man performed his Jutsu:

"Ninpou: Chakra no Tate Jutsu!"

A domed cylinder of Chakra formed around the boy as the lightning literally struck. It protected Naruto while sweeping behind him, also shielding Hinata from the blast.

As both techniques collided, sparks of lightning splintering off the main bolt, Naruto slowly Turned pale white, his own Jutsu twisting and malforming at the frontal end, where there was direct contact.

A mere splinter hit Hiashi, who was knocked to the ground, unable to move yet still very conscious, seemingly in his own personal nightmare. He, the head of the Hyuga clan, strongest of Konoha had done nothing while an assassin attacked Hinata and himself.

Whereas a mere academy student was now defending his eldest daughter with all he had, which was proving quite a lot. Hiashi even dared to hope, for a moment, that the boy could hold out long enough to outlast the Jutsu.

Sadly it was not to be, the shield simply was not powerful enough to combat the sinister technique, and Naruto knew it too. Maintaining the walls of the cylinder for as long as possible, with a defiant scream Naruto released the frontal dome.

As it collapsed under the lightning, both Hyugas saw Naruto, bathed in the light for one fateful split second, before it engulfed him.

The man walked up to the charred body and grunted in a surprised fashion, before kicking him out of the way brutally, gaining a soft sob from the terrified Hinata.

"Well well, this kid would have been strong. A shame he felt like protecting two such weaklings as you Hyuga, even in death he stopped my Lightning Arc from harming that girl even a little. Truly shameful, but no matter, I will take the Hyuga back with me now, she will receive plenty of pain while we travel."

The man's Dark eyes, the colour of muddy water, visibly widened as his twisted mind began creating equally twisted images. He reached up and pulled off his hood, revealing… A Shinobi from the village hidden in the Cloud, judging by his forehead protector.

"Well, best be off, things to do you know, Hyuga to breed for the future of my village. With the same twisted, mad look in his eyes the man reached out to grab Hinata, who was too tired to resist.

Hiashi watched, veins in his neck bulging as he attempted to fight off the paralysis of the Arc Jutsu that he hoped was temporary, to no avail. His daughter was going to be stolen from before his very eyes, and there was nary a thing that could be done about it.

The leering man noticed a resistance on his outstretched hand, glancing at it he saw an inverted bubble of energy wrapping around his hand, effectively immobilising his entire arm. A pain filled mutter of " You will never hurt my friend while I can draw breath" could be heard.

The Kumo-nin (cloud ninja) looked over to the charred 'corpse' he had previously kicked away. He saw a battered yet still breathing boy, with a hand outstretched towards him. His skin burnt black and clothes melted to said skin, blue eyes shining with concentration, holding back the agony with sheer determination.

No longer amused, the Kumo-nin attempted to force his way out of the restraining Chakra no Tate, when he failed he ground out the words

"Damn gaki, you are not even a Shinobi yet, there is no way you can restrain a special-Jounin rank Shinobi. There is just no way, now be a good gaki and _die_"

The Jounin was unable to move, or perform Jutsu with his arm trapped; thus they had a little Mexican stand off. Hinata knew Naruto could not hold on much longer, he had used copious amounts of Chakra earlier that day, modifying his Jutsu for its current purpose, detaining someone.

Straining and panting slightly, the boy continued his relentless defence, while staring at the man with undivided concentration. The Chakra no Tate started to warp under the pressure, twisting and expanding slightly.

Beads of sweat ran down the Jounin's face. His thoughts as the time were 'Cant believe this kid can hold me, he is basically a living corpse. But I can see and feel his strain, it will not be much longer now.'

Naruto was shivering uncontrollably; bits of his charred flesh were falling off his badly burned body as he stressed it to and beyond its set limit in his efforts. The Jutsu warped once more, before it started to glow, as Naruto whispered "Kitsune Kai" it condensed, then imploded.

"Argggh, you little… my arm… you will pay for that!" The kumo-nin growled as he turned, pulled out a Kunai and reached for the now prone boy. The Shinobi knife extended shakily towards Naruto's throat, before halting, then falling out of a now limp hand.

The wind whistled through the street, where there were four figures, only the two Hyuga standing. Hiashi had been given the time to recover, he had used that time to deliver a silent and deadly Palm Thrust at the Kumo-nin's heart.

With that simple, elegant yet deadly move, it was all over. Two Hyuga branch member guards came out to do their guard duty, seeing the situation they ran up to Hiashi, who ordered them to take Hinata inside and set up a patrol along the Hyuga grounds perimeter.

The proud man then walked over to the prone figure of our hero. He gently picked up the now moaning boy, before lightly jumping up to a roof, and off to the hospital.

While en-route, the Hyuga head looked at the severity of the wounds. It did not look good for the boy, his chest had taken the majority of the shock, melting and fusing his entire rib cage together.

Hiashi assumed this was his demon's way of attempting to save the inner organs from major damage, an only partially successful gamble. The boy could barely breath, due to the lung damage and his damaged neck, which had a huge chunk burnt right out of it.

His arms, while also affected and burnt, were not in terrible condition, yet the legs seemed to be almost fine, except where his skin fused with the melted fishnet clothing.

Upon arrival, Hiashi rushed to the doctor who usually served the Hyuga main family.

"Mito-san I have a patient for you. He saved the life of my daughter, yet you know how he is treated here and elsewhere. Please (and you know how much it hurts Hiashi to say that) help him."

The doctor took one look at Hiashi's serious face and nodded.

"Hai, Hiashi-sama I know of his situation and personally feel nothing for or against the boy. I will be happy to treat him personally."

With that the Hyuga head put Naruto down upon an examining table in the adjoining room. As the doctor, known only as Mito examined the boy he inquired of Hiashi:

"What was he hit with? It looks like extensive burning damage; all wounds are cauterised suggesting lightning damage."

"Hai, Mito-san it was a lightning based Jutsu from a Kumo-nin. He stepped right into it, casting his own defensive Jutsu, Chakra no Tate; I have never seen the likes of it before. It even came close to blocking the whole attack.

Making a sceptical noise, the doctor (butcher, they are all butchers) set to work. Separating the Skin from the clothing was the first task, after a large needle filled with Panadine Forte of course.

Hiashi left the man to his delicate, dangerous work, stating that he would check in the next day. In reality he was planning a Shinobi funeral for the boy. Having seen and felt the extent of the damage, Hiashi knew it was unlikely for the boy to survive the night.

The middle-aged man felt the least he could do was see that Naruto had the burial of a hero, even if in life he was treated as scum of the most virulent nature.

Mito worked late into the night, accomplishing a large feat. He separated the boy's skin from his clothing, for the most part. Working on a stubborn piece located at his left leg, the doctor accidentally cut too deeply and to his mortification the entire leg fell off!

The stunned physician watched as the normal, slightly burnt leg shifted into a plastic and metal construct. With a start the doctor realised that the boy had been wearing a prosthetic limb. Upon closer inspection he noted the sole of the fake foot.

"Well ill be a son of a… It is a type of reinforced rubber, for taking impact shocks. That is really lucky, it must have acted as an insulator from the lightning, minimising much of the damage." Mito mused to himself.

"It must have been one hell of a technique, to still do that much damage though. I wonder what the boy has been through in his short life to have such damage inflicted upon his body."

Reattaching the limb, by merely lightly pressing it onto Naruto's stump, Mito went about his work. He had to give the boy more painkillers every two hours, so he would stay asleep. He left the boy to a trusted nurse (loyal to the Hyuga clan that is) to catch a few hours of sleep himself, with what remained of the night.

The next day dawned bright and sunny, as if the Monday morning cared not about the previous night's activities. One Hyuga head told his daughter to remain in the compound, then go to the academy for the day.

"After your lessons you can come with me to see young Uzumaki. Until then, conduct yourself as the heiress to this clan and do what must be done."

Hinata, losing whatever nerve she had displayed, bowed her head and mumbled 'Yes Otou-san.'

Hiashi attended a hastily organised council meeting, in which he explained the situation with the covert Kumo-nin. Unlike the last time a similar event had occurred, this was not their head ninja, merely a Jounin on a secret mission.

The Hyuga head outlined his plan for their response to the Kumo attack. It went something like this.

As the village of Konohagure was no longer weakened by the Kyuubi no Kitsune attack, as it had been earlier, they would not listen to the village of Kumogaure's demands.

Instead they would demand reparation of their own, in terms of monetary compensation, for a break in their tentative peace agreement. Also included in the 'bill' would be the hospital fees of the 'Shinobi' injured in the conflict. With the threat of war if not succinctly paid of course.

Hiashi felt it was only fitting that the village of cloud pay for Naruto's hospital fees (and funeral), while Konoha profited from that same event. As cloud was weakened from a recent failed uprising, they would likely bow to any Demands Konoha made.

As the saying goes: 'The boot is on the other foot now.' (Time for an ass kicking!)

The council wholeheartedly supported this plan, greedy old men that most of them were, they further suggested (ordered) upon learning of the extent of Naruto's wounds that the money all be made out to Naruto. Upon his subsequent death and likely with no family or will, the money would go straight into the council's 'emergency fund.'

The sandiame Hokage agreed, inwardly chuckling as he thought. 'Hrmm hrmm, they are underestimating Naruto's will to live, his spirit of fire. That will be to their own detriment, and Narutos gain.'

Heading off to the hospital, at a more sedate walking pace this time, Hiashi checked in on the boy, expecting to be told he had been moved to the morgue.

Imagine his surprise at seeing a conscious boy, bandaged nearly head to toe, being spoon-fed by the attractive young nurse loyal to the Hyuga family.

"Come on now, Naruto-kun, if you refuse to eat I will be fired and kicked out of my flat for not paying the rent." The young nurse pleaded, with trademark puppy-dog eyes, prompting the scowling boy to open his mouth once more and allow the 'horrible slop' to be placed in his mouth.

The nurse's name was and is Mituki Laura. An orphan who enrolled in the nursing program early on, at the age of eight, graduated in an unheard of two years, nursing in the Konoha hospital ever since. She is now a very capable nurse at the age of seventeen.

Like all people, Laura liked having and spending money. The Hyuga gave her money (in excess of her normal wage) to ensure her being their personal nurse when needed; her silence and bedside manner were both crucial factors for the employment.

To say that Hiashi was surprised would be an understatement. Naruto should by all rights be dead now, yet there he was, grumpily being fed. Not to mention the pain from his burnt flesh should have had him incoherent, yet he seemed awake and alert.

The nurse finished the feeding, gave Naruto an injection and gently told him to rest, which thanks to the injection, he did. She walked outside the room to talk to Hiashi.

"Hello Hiashi-sama, it is an honour to see you here again. Do you want to know the boy's condition?

He replied "Hai Laura-san, I would like to know how he seems to be in such good shape, considering his injuries last night." Laura picked up a chart, reading from it she said

"Hai, his recovery is nothing short of remarkable, stretches of skin that were totally destroyed are regrowing, his rib bones have unfused, and seem to be patching themselves back together. We did have to amputate his left ear; it had melted over the ear-hole, becoming a hindrance.

Other than that, it appears he will make a full recovery, he might even be out of hospital in two weeks. He will have major scarring, especially on the chest and neck, but he will live without any more disfiguring injuries."

Hiashi, frowning inquired "But I thought the boy did not have any disfiguring injuries from this incident Laura-san."

The woman looked at him for a few seconds in an evaluating way, before giving a small nod and saying. "Naruto has a prosthetic left leg, Hiashi-sama. It has a rubber base on the foot, which prevented much of the damage. Without it he would definetly have died."

The somewhat surprised Hyuga shook his head and said

"Well, it is good that the boy lives on. I will check back on him in an hour or two, with my daughter, she has been quite anxious to see him after all."

Laura murmured a "Hai, Hiashi-sama" as the proud man left the room, face once again blank as a politician's (as he indeed was).

She left the sleeping boy in peace, who then cautiously opened a single eye. Seeing that the coast was clear, he sighed loudly.

"Eh didn't think they would ever leave, scarring eh? Well I don't like mirrors, so it matters little."

As he spoke aloud to nobody in particular, he did notice a slight rasp in his voice, not obvious yet existent nonetheless.

Exploring his face with the tips of his fingers, Naruto did notice the bandaging all over it, preventing him from checking his ear in particular. Truth to tell, the loss of an ear really did not bother him much, as his recent amputation by his own backfired Jutsu had been far more serious.

After a boring hour or so, Hiashi came back, this time with Hinata in tow. She fussed over him, as women of all ages do for men who manage to get injured, making sure his pillow was adequate and the like.

Both Hyuga thanked him for his efforts, Hinata saying that he saved her life, Hiashi that he owed the boy a considerable debt. The man told Naruto that he was welcome to the Hyuga compound any time and could also ask Hiashi for anything he might need, now or in the future.

After they left, Naruto actually did sleep, troubled dreams with the crackling of raw energy and the smell or burnt meat. Insert the mental image of a large, imposing man scraping a knife along a sharpening stick here, if you are so inclined.

Naruto recovered extremely fast, in his words due to the 'noted lack or Ramen', so fast that he was released only three days after being admitted.

The boy was advised to keep to light exercise and not to strain himself at the Ninja Academy. He politely agreed with the doctor while inwardly thinking 'I can and shall take care of myself, thankyou very much'.

Walking with a slight limp out of the hospital on the cold, miserable Wednesday morning, Naruto was greeted with the sight of Hinata hurrying towards him. After confirming that he had been released, in contrast to running away, Hinata walked him back to his room. They went in and talked for a while, about his one-sided fight.

"Ne Naruto-kun, you really did very well, to hold him off like that, he was a special Jounin, one of the top cloud infiltrators. I think your Chakra no Tate needs a little special something though, when using it to block Jutsu."

"Hai, I know you are right Hinata-chan, might even talk to your dad about it, he said I could ask and he obviously knows about my Jutsu now. I might as well pick the brains of the finest in the strongest family of Konoha.

Hinata was most uncomfortable with the idea of the Hyuga being the strongest. She believed their ways were too rigid and did not hesitate to tell Naruto so. When he inquired as to the why of that, she noted their reluctance to learn and apply new Jutsu, or to use elemental based Jutsu.

Their ways were all based on the Byakugan and the Juken. To be the best, one must have a speciality, but the term overspecialisation comes to mind when thinking of the arrogant Hyuga. Hinata understood this on some level; she did want things to change, first by teaching herself new ways (assisted by Naruto of course) and second by becoming clan head. This would allow her to directly change the decrepit rules and traditions of the family/clan.

Until then, the academy beckoned, so the two set off. Naruto decided to go and see if he could handle the physical requirements, if not he could simply bag sickness and leave. By now all of the Shinobi in Konoha had heard of the altercation and Naruto's involvement in it.

Hiashi had made sure the news of Naruto's bravery spread over the village, to both Shinobi and civilian.

Arriving at the academy and filing into the class at to his usual seat, next to Hinata and far away from Kiba, the blonde had caused quite a few covert looks and muttering, as he still had bandages over his face and left ear. The thick, ugly scars on his upper chest and neck were partially visible, as were the less pronounced ones on his arms.

Naruto heard mutters of 'the baka got hurt, wonder where' and 'I heard he fought a Jounin from cloud, my dad said he held him off for a while. It must be a lie though, that kid cannot even use the Kawarimi Jutsu.' These comments made seemingly no difference to the boy, yet Hinata noticed the little things.

Things such as the way he sat in his chair ramrod straight (stiffly), as if expecting attack at any time. There was also the way his eyes seemed to harden and become devoid of all happiness and life, blue orbs with hidden depths to entangle and entrap the unwary observer.

The comments died down after Iruka came into the room and after roll call he began his usual droning lecture on another subject that might have been interesting, if not told so poorly.

After the stupefying lecture, they had the usual Taijutsu lesson, only this time it was unusual in the extreme. One fighter in the top of the Taijutsu ladder would face off against two who were doing less proficiently. As Naruto had not been beaten in some time with sparring, he was near the top in Taijutsu; therefore his match was against Kiba and Shino.

The idea was not to use any serious attacks (Like Kiba's Tsuga), only using the academy taught basic Taijutsu in tandem with the teammate to defeat the stronger foe. This was to promote teamwork and the ability to support another in battle. Also for the stronger, it helped when facing multiple opponents, as the best in Konoha are expected to do.

Squaring off, Naruto knew he did not have the usual stamina, or ability to take punches. He decided the only way too not get badly beaten was to use a seal-less Chibi Chakra no Tate upon being attacked. The small Wave would slow or block attacks as they came, if used with enough force they could even repel an attacker, allowing for an opening in which to attack.

Not waiting for a strategy discussion with his partner Shino, Kiba launched himself at Naruto with the thought of beating the bandaged blonde uppermost on his mind. Meanwhile Shino watched Naruto to discern his style and any possible openings in his defences.

Opting for his usual method of opening attack, the elbow to the chest, Kiba was astonished when he seemed to slow down, before Naruto grasped the offending elbow, pulled up and kicked him in the gut with a straight shot of the left leg.

Deflating like a windbag, Kiba fell to the floor, groaning, where Naruto nudged him out of the way with his toe. Shino, not having moved throughout the short and painful counter-offensive, flitted into action.

He attacked Naruto with one arm after another, in a slicing manner, attempting to hit specific pressure points on the boy's chest and neck respectively. Once again, the offending appendages slowed down enough for Naruto to latch onto with his own arms, before pulling the expressionless boy closer.

Grinning happily at Shino, Naruto moved his head back. Shino asked, in his usual monotone

"What now, Naruto?"

In response, Narutos head flew forwards, smashing his temple onto the other boy's face. Blood flew about as Shino had his nose scrunched into his face.

Kiba, now recovered after his own little loss, attacked Naruto in a frenzied manner. Using his Chibi Tate, Naruto blocked or slowed all attacks, while proceeding to beat his opponent down. He finished with a similar move to before, catching both boys as they attacked and slamming their heads together, breaking Kiba's nose on Shino's forehead.

Suffice to say both Kiba and Shino lost that little battle, without quite knowing why. Kiba had

Left the area, presumably to go sulk about his 'poor abused face'. Shino chose to stay and talk to Naruto, after plugging his still leaking nose with two pieces of tissue.

"Good fight Shino, your open handed attacks are harder that I thought to block, you seem to have started on a good taijutsu style. You might have got me if not for that clown Kiba, I would hate to be on his team in two years time."

With a slight bowing of his head and a "hn" Shino agreed with the still bandaged blonde boy. The two left, walking side by side to watch the others as they fought it out.

Hinata had finished with her two opponents by the time the boys came to observe. She had been facing two Kuinoichi who were not strong or fast, but had learned to work as a team to defeat their opponent.

They had almost won too, yet their reckless all out attack faltered when they were both hit by mild Juken strikes, applied with the academy Taijutsu. Hinata joined the boys in observing others.

Sasuke had gotten a lucky match-up; that is to say he was fighting Sakura and Ino. The duck-butt haired boy had been subsequently lynched by Ino, as Sakura proceeded to yell at the aforementioned Ino. The two girls then attacked each other, rolling around on the floor in a cloud of dust, fists flying, cartoon style.

Sasuke, watching avidly, though to the outward eye looked bored, occasionally nudged one or the other of the girls to keep their blood up, while inwardly thinking 'the longer they keep this up the less fighting I have to do.' The spoiled little shit did not want to fight the girls, as he thought it would be a waste of time, so this little cat fight was quite convenient for him.

After about twenty minutes more observing (Ino and Sakura were still going strong, kicking, clawing and biting) the Taijutsu practise ended and normal droning class resumed.

Nothing more of note happened that day, Naruto decided he was not up to any more training for now and went straight home. Upon entering his abode Naruto realised that he had nothing to do for the afternoon. His residence held no Television, books or games that were not to do with training. He decided in the end to sleep the day through, and that was it for our lil' slugger.

Waking up in the morning Naruto was greeted with a most unwelcome sight, that is to say a leering face, inches from his own. His reaction was priceless, shrinking backwards, with widened eyes, then expelling a Chibi Tate to repel the intruder, while groggily reaching for a handy bashing object.

At this point an amused and slightly put-out Anko spoke up.

"Well well gaki, I thought you blew off our sessions to play the sympathy card with Hinata, yet here you are, sleeping the day through. Guess we might as well train, eh?"

Naruto apologised, before stiffly sitting up and stating that he was still feeling 'terrible' and not up to any training. A pouting Anko seemed to weigh this statement in her mind, before grinning and stating brightly

"When you are ready you know where to find me, in the meantime the morning is the best time for Dango!"

With an enthusiastic shout, Anko sprinted out of Naruto's apartment, presumably to find the nearest Dango stand and deprive them of their stock. Shaking his head and shuddering slightly, Naruto noticed it was still early, by the dawning sun outside of his window. In an uncharacteristic display, Naruto yawned and layed down for more precious shut-eye.

The boy spent much of that week sleeping and eating, only resuming light stretches by Saturday, even those were only light. His body seemed sluggish at all times, harder and harder to move at all. It seemed to be a delayed reaction of his central nervous system being zapped by the electrical current that could have flash-fried a chicken.

Kiba had noticed this relaxed behaviour during the academy, he decided to track and ambush Naruto that Saturday, to repay him for his broken nose and spectacularly blackened eyes.

Sneaking along stealthily, Kiba relied on his sight and instincts to find the blonde as his nose was out of commission at that moment (hee hee).

It took about three hours from the morning onwards, but Kiba tracked the elusive blonde down, leaving his apartment.

Kiba thought to himself 'That lazy slob is only leaving his apartment now? Its nine for crying out loud, at least this will be easy'.

He failed to note that Naruto had removed the bandages around his head and arms, though leaving the neck bandaged (think Zabuza without the facial bandages as he charges the mob), this indicated he was feeling better.

His injuries – battle scars – were now visible, to some extent. His left ear was entirely missing, with massive scarring around that whole area, even disrupting the hair growth around it. Small scything scars ran down the right cheek, extending the whisker marks in a rather sinister manner. All in all, Naruto now looked the part of the demon of Konoha, as some villagers had labelled him.

Elsewhere, the village council was undergoing a serious debate. Mashimo Kimameto, a leading council member and a survivor of the Uchiha massacre was pushing for Naruto to become the living weapon of the village. If he had his way the boy would be their trump card in times of war.

The old, yet still powerful Uchiha argued that war was inevitable, when such a time came their village would need carefully honed weapons to fight with. His evidence was the Chakra no Tate Naruto had used, a powerful protective Jutsu if used with proper care and good timing. As the boy had delayed a powerful Jounin at his young age and non-existent experience level, surely proper training would turn him into an unstoppable wall, in between the village of Konoha and all hostiles.

The Sandiame Hokage was doing his best to quell the argument, by stating that Naruto was already a nin in training, he would become a tool for the village in his own time. He further suggested that Naruto had created his own powerful Jutsu, left alone with proper incentive to improve he could one day rival the Yondiame's near-incomparable strength.

He further reminded the council that the fourth had created all of his own and best Jutsu without unwanted help, Jiryia of the Legendary Sennin had been his mentor and only partner in that respect.

As hoped by the wily old man, the council seized on this dangled carrot after some further discussion, agreeing to leave the boy be if and only if Jiriyia could be located and convinced to Supervise the Genin team that Naruto eventually would join. If not, the council would appoint their own choice to train the boy.

Sarutobi agreed reluctantly, knowing that this was the only viable option. Meanwhile with a certain one eared blonde boy…

Kiba tensed as Naruto came past the alley in which he happened to be hidden. The boy prepared himself; his hands grew claws and became generally bestial in appearance. Leaping out of the alley, he attacked Naruto with a silent scream of juvenile hatred.

The blonde crouched as Kiba came. Kiba's outstretched hands sailed over the boy's head. Naruto then shifted forwards while still crouching and kicked Kiba in the stomach.

"OMPH"

The scarred boy straightened slowly, with great dignity for one his age and walked over to the now prone form of Kiba.

"Listen up, and listen good Kiba. I will not tolerate this any longer, if you have a problem with me deal with it like a real guy, not a coward. We are not opponents, we are allies, how would you ever complete a Shinobi mission with me as your partner?

We would both die in that case, due to your stupidity. You do not like me, I return the favour, you **will** at least try and be civil, and I shall do the same, if not I might as well kill you here and now. You are useless to Konoha as a ninja with your current attitude."

With that speech delivered in a flat voice, filled with open dislike, the blonde offered his hand to the glaring Kiba. Hesitation occurred for some indeterminable time while Kiba started into the swirling depths (think a lava-lamp) of Naruto's eyes.

Kiba took Naruto's offered hand, who lifted him to his feet. They shook hands once; pressure indicating that they still disliked the other, before they both walked off in opposite directions.

The Inuzaka had been planning to reject Naruto's peace offer, but after looking into those serious eyes he had realised the truth. A Shinobi cannot be petty, allowing rivalry or jealousy to get in the way of business.

Kiba had been acting like a small child, incapable of understanding or accepting any responsibility. But no more, now he would make an effort to at least tolerate the other's presence.

After leaving that little scene, Naruto was accosted by the Hokage's assistant, a cold bitch of a woman who usually ignored Naruto in all things.

She grabbed hold of Naruto's arm and said, "You will come to the Hokage, he wishes to talk with you."

His arm was shunted out of the woman's grip, by what appeared thin air, as Naruto replied.

"Very well, lead on assistant-san." Seething inwardly, though her face remained blank, the woman proceeded to do just that.

Checking regularly over her shoulder to ensure Naruto was still following, she led him briskly to the Kage tower.

An immense building, made from red stone, it is the symbol of the leader of the village and their power in said village. Currently used as the hub for Shinobi to acquire and receive payment for various missions, it also doubled as a last bastion of defence in case of invasion.

Many traps and wards could be activated to make the tower all but impregnable to any except for an elite Shinobi army.

Entering the tower, then after climbing far too many stairs (in his mind at least), Naruto found himself invited into the Hokage office.

"Ah Naruto, it is good to see you, especially after that incident earlier with the Kumo-nin. You seem to be in as good health as can be expected though, are you in need of any further medication or treatment?" asked the Sandiame, contentedly puffing on his pipe.

"Domo Arigato, Ojii-san, but I am doing fine. Just a few more days of taking it easy and it will be training time again." Naruto said all of this in a monotone voice, as if the subject did not interest him. Lightening up some, he inquired:

"What I would appreciate information on though, was how that particular Jounin level ninja got in our village undetected, not to mention spying on the Hyuga gates without being detected is a big deal, what with their Bloodline right?"

Sandiame put his pipe away after a serious look at Naruto, then chuckled.

"Ho ho, you are learning Naruto, it seems that they have developed an electrical based Jutsu that hides their Chakra system from all such seeking techniques, including the Byakugan of the Hyuga.

We are attempting to recreate the Jutsu with our own specialist team but so far have met with little success. If the situation changes you and the academy will be the first to know, as when we can perform the technique, we will soon develop a counter to said technique."

Nodding thoughtfully, Naruto then inquired politely:

"Ok Ojii-san, it has been interesting as always to talk, yet I somehow suspect you had a reason for calling me here, an explanation would be appreciated, I am a busy guy after all."

At this, Naruto mimed sleeping and eating. This elected another chuckle from the third, before he got down to brass tacks, as they say.

"Very well Naruto, the Shinobi from Kumogure are known both for holding grudges and never stopping. A somewhat impractical approach, yet it helps Konoha stay in the lead. They will try to take Hinata again, as such an ANBU guard will be assigned to her permanently while she is outside the Hyuga grounds.

The guard will make himself known to you today, so you will know him by sight and not attack him if you see him observing, this is all, ok?"

Naruto nodded obediently, so the Sandiame asked someone to 'please come in now.'

That someone was an average height ANBU member with a shock of white hair, who nodded his masked head slightly in Naruto's direction, before intoning "Yo."

The Sandiame explained a little further.

"This is the ANBU in question Naruto, he will be assigned to Hinata's bodyguard for the next three months. At that time, we will bring you back here to see the next guard, and so on and so forth. You may tell Hinata of these arrangements, her family already knows. Dismissed."

Both the ANBU and Naruto left, the former disappearing with a poof of smoke, the latter rising and walking out of the office.

Naruto had planned to find Hinata and tell her the news, yet he was so very tired.

Yawning and nearly colliding with various villagers, Naruto made it back to his apartment in time to collapse face down onto the bed.

This is where we will have to leave it, I am afraid; he is only a kid after all, though a strong willed one, I wouldn't want a violent cliffhanger to be on his head right now. Hope people enjoy this, for some reason it took me longer to write than the last chapters.

The ideas come harder now, dangit, though I have one or two in regards to the ANBU introduced before, hee hee. Must be that writer's block that I have heard about. In any case, please read, rate and review and all that, it helps me to improve and I know there is huge scope for this improvement.

Erm as before if anyone has any bright ideas they would like to see in this fic and do not want to write it into their own story, feel free to let me know, if I like the idea in twill go. This includes general storyline, pairings, though no Yaoi or Yuri, no offence but its unrealistic + unwanted in Naruto (to my eyes, ears and more importantly in my fic).

Also no Main pairings that hundreds of fics already have, like Narusaku or Hina. Do not get me wrong, Naruhina rules, yet it has been done. Many times, hashed over and over. I dislike very much just taking ideas from others, or following generally popular trends.

I have the same approach when playing various TCG games, if anyone is interested, where is the fun in playing a deck that has been used before, that many know how to counter. Much better to make something crazy and original, to confuse and aggravate opponents.

Ok enough rambling, eh I shall not bother with the Translation bit at the bottom, if you do not know a Japanese or other word, poor you. Get used to it if you watch English dubbed Naruto Jap eps. (Do so they are the best).

Good luck with all of your own Fics and life in general people of the globe and finally good night.


	5. Chapter 5 White Hair Yet No Pervert

Disclaimer: The author does not own Naruto in any way, shape or form and this fiction piece is not written for profit. It is a freely written and distributed fic, for the purpose of both the reader(s?) and author's enjoyment.

It is currently nearly twelve at night, I am too lazy to go over the story with a fine tooth comb, will check tomorrow and re-post this chapter if there are errors, or inconsistencies that I notice then. Till such time please enjoy!

The day had been fairly average as far as any had been lately for the young Jinnchuriki. Naruto was feeling a great deal better after another night recovering from his encounter of the Shinobi kind.

He had undergone light training with Anko early in the morning, much to her sadistic pleasure, what with the indiscriminately thrown Kunai about the place. Fleeing at his maximum, yet still slowed pace, Naruto had managed to avoid the worst of it, though a few woodland creatures were not so lucky.

Snakes, rodents and even such small mammals as a Badger fell to the double-bladed knives. Naruto looked at the dead creatures while hiding behind a tree to recoup some energy, thinking 'What a damn waste.'

Luckily Anko was a sick twisted woman, she gathered all of the smitten animals together and threw them into a pot for cooking, not bothering with such trifling details as skinning or butchering beforehand. Not wanting to hang around any longer – the atmosphere was getting decidedly cannibalistic – Naruto fled, yelling about the academy not appreciating tardiness over his shoulder.

The academy lesson was uneventful, Kiba finally seeming to get the hang of not aggravating his betters, who happened to be every other human in Naruto's eyes. Hinata was her usual self, quiet yet no longer quite so shy (what with the newfound ability to speak two words without stuttering), and the rest of the class was much the same as usual.

Sasuke sitting, brooding while effortlessly acing the academy exams, his fangirls plotting dastardly acts to steal his first kiss. With the noted exception of Sakura and Ino of course, they were too busy quietly having multiple vicious thumb-wars.

The two were always fighting over Sasuke, sometimes to the point where they actually forgot to fawn over him, this being a rare occurrence in the fangirl archives (I am sure they have archives!)

Shino was his usual self, silent as the grave, though slightly more inviting than the aforementioned cemetery (to those of us who dislike mention and practise of necromancy.) As previously noted, Kiba was hiding in silence, an unusual method for the brash Inuzaka, but he was trying nonetheless.

Shikamaru was doing his usual energetic thing, sleeping while his best friend Choji ate copious amount of chips from a seemingly unending supply. Most other hopeful Nin's were in various levels of catatonic state (vacant expression, minor drooling) due to Iruka's lecture.

A shame that Iruka was not a necromancer, come to that, his droning voice could probably wake the dead or so Naruto avidly believes. Eventually the torturous lecture ended and with it, the (not-so) eventful day at the academy.

During the afternoon, spent with the pale eyed Hyuga heiress Hinata herself, the two children spent most of their time talking. Naruto would regale her with tales of 'the stupid one' aka Kiba, Hinata would extrapolate on some factual content oft her family and their strict hierarchy.

Naruto had noticed a shadow with spiky hair atop a yonder building, yet dismissed it as the ANBU guard making his presence known while Hinata was out and about. Little did he suspect the shadow of creeping ever closer, before it leaped silently to clash with the blonde boy.

There was a light snick of metal on metal behind Naruto, he saw Hinata's eyes widening in surprise as he turned, there was an amazing sight to behold his still young eyes.

That same white-haired ANBU from before had moved to protect Naruto from another mysterious Shinobi. Their Kunai clashed for a few seconds, while everything seemed to freeze, before Naruto shouted out, forming the Karana and Ram seal for extra focus as he did so "Chakra no Tate!"

The expanding energy field left the ANBU unharmed, yet slammed into the attacking Shinobi, who let out a slight 'ummph' alike to a balloon letting off air, as he was pushed about ten feet away.

Wasting no time, the ANBU threw his Kunai, made a cross-like seal with both hands (seem familiar anyone?) and muttered "Kage Kunai no Jutsu!"

The singular bladed throwing knife turned into about fifty and the still slightly stunned Shinobi could only roll out of the way, avoiding all but four of the deadly Kunai.

Meanwhile, the ANBU who we can call Whitey for the moment, after the hair, pulled out a mysterious object from a hidden back holster. It resembled a long handle for a weapon; the curious thing was the lack of a blade.

Holding the handle down low Whitey rushed his wounded opponent, who feebly raised his arms in defence, trying to from seals as he did. "Too slow" Whitey softly intoned as he brought the handle up to striking distance.

It was at this point that the odd handle revealed its secret. A white blade appeared from the business end of the handle, about two feet long. The crackling blade cut across the other Shinobi, severing the frantically working fingers before splitting open the unfortunate assailant's skull almost faster than the eye could see.

Thus it was all over in a spray of blood. Whitey disengaged his blade, stowed it and proceeded to check and search the now very dead assailant. After looking at one object for a second, he tossed it over in Naruto and Hinatas direction.

It turned out to be a Hiatiae (headband), with the symbol of the hidden lightning inscribed upon it. The two looked at each other in mutual discomfort. Neither wanted Kumo-nins after their ass for an extended period of time.

Having a guard 24/7 is really not the desired thing, both children knew this for fact. Naruto got up and bowed to their saviour, without whom they would likely have been assasinated.

"Arigatou Gozimasu ANBU-san, you have really good timing for an old person."

At this they could both picture a twitching eyebrow, though the mask hid all such expression from their curious eyes. They both wanted to know the identity of such an enigma, especially one with such a shocking sprout of pure white hair.

Detaching the mask, the ANBU in question looked no older than Hinata's Father, Hiashi. That is to say around middle aged (old cough without being decrepit cough), he quietly spoke up in a deep, yet kind voice.

"Come on kids, you can now see that I am not decrepit yet, when my son has had kids I will be old, not until then. Now then you may call me…"

At this point the normally withdrawn Hinata whispered "Konoha's White Fang."

The man looked surprised for a second, before grinning and saying, "Yes that is my reputation, the name I have earned over years of being the tool of the village. But my true name is…"

It was at this point that Naruto felt obliged to stick his two cents in.

"Ha Ha, I knew it, you can be called Whitey! It is a perfect na-ahhh put me down Shan-aro!"

Upon hearing his newly dubbed name, 'Whitey' grabbed Naruto and jumped him up into the top of a nearby tree.

"Theres a good gaki, shut up for a while neh? Make my job a little easier gaki.

Naruto had both arms wrapped around the topmost branch; he looked Whitey in the eyes and said

"The name is Uzumaki Naruto old-man-Whitey and don't you forget it! Some day you will be taking orders from me, so you just watch it."

Whitey leaped down off the tree, chuckling all the while as he ignored Naruto's now plaintive pleas for rescue.

"Yosh, now that is settled I must get back to my duties. Ja Ne!"

With that, he was gone in a rustle of leaves. Hinata, also ignoring the now near-panicked blonde, stood and bowed to fat (as opposed to thin) air.

"Arigatou Gozimasu, Whit-ANBU-san."

The next day dawned bright and early for some. Others were still sleeping after a hard day of breaking tree limbs and failing a Chakra no Tate for crash-landing purposes. Turns out it is very difficult to concentrate while upside down and falling.

Eventually getting up, Naruto did the morning stuff and set off for Anko's 'hell' training.

Arriving at the scene he was surprised to see an absence of the slave-driving woman. Upon searching the area the boy found a note addressed to 'The Gaki' which he read.

"Dear Gaki, I have some business to attend to, for once it is not a mission, yet it is important nonetheless. Keep training in my absence, make sure that girl tries her best to beat you black and blue, someone has to after all. Ja Ne!"

That was that apparently. The boy did some stretches and running for a while, before practising different sizes, shapes and strengths that he could make his Chakra no Tate assume. The Jutsu was versatile enough to require many hours of study to master any one level (there are three remember), therefore Naruto practised all the different applications he could think of about 24/7.

He could repel objects, or if done correctly, himself, at a rapid speed by pushing a Tate into the ground while attaching it directly to his Chakra coils. The process was a little shaky, meaning he propelled himself into many a tree, rock or simply mid-air, at which point he would need to form another Tate to stop his ignoble contact with the unmercifully hard ground.

After his solo training, it was off to the academy again for another bone-numbingly wearying lecture or two. Or so Naruto thought. Once all of the class was seated Iruka dropped a surprise on them.

"Ok class, today is the surprise evaluation day for the academy students, instead of our usual test we are going to pit you and two other random students across the years against a battle hardened Chunin or Jounin who has expressed interest in a Genin team this year. If you pass their test you will be eligible to become a Genin straight away.

If you decide not to become a Genin, or fail you can still try every year until you reach twelve years old. This class is 10 years on average, it and the 11th and 12th year students will be participating in this evaluation, this is to highlight the differing skill levels that you will have to reach should you fail.

The Judge, be they Chunin or Jounin can pass or fail your team, or on an individual basis at their sole discretion. That is the explanation, if anyone does not feel up to this trial, please leave now and come back tomorrow. (None of the students so much as twitched) Very well then, I will assign you randomly to an instructor. If three of you are not assigned to the same instructor, that means you are paired with another/s of different classes."

Hr then started rattling off the names on his long list. Naruto tuned it out until he heard a name of interest.

"Uchiha Sasuke, you have the instructor Mizuki, who also has Haruno Sakura and Yamanaka Ino.

Hyuga Hinata, you have the instructor Yuuhi Kurenai." There was some more incessant droning then Naruto heard the name he had been waiting for, his of course:

"Uzumaki Naruto, you have the instructor Mitarashi Anko. That is all"

Going outside to meet their instructors and remaining team-members, Naruto and class soon found their correct place, as their instructors led them off to various different training areas.

Naruto found Anko and his fellow two Genin, who were both twelve and taller than he happened to be at the current moment (even for a kid he is a midget, if you dislike the word, that is fine but I happen to like it. Deal with it please, or feel free to sue me. Well please do not sure me, I have little to lose but still, it's the principal that counts neh?)

They went to the outskirts of training area 44, better known as the forest of death. The two older Genin were muttering to each-other "We aren't training in there right?" and other such fearful comments. Anko faced them, throwing two Kunai at the older ones to get their undivided attention (at which she succeeded in acquiring) before shouting energetically.

"Yosh, time to fight, the rules are very simple: our battleground is outside the forest here, you three have to make me yield or kill me, either is fine so be ready for that. Feel free to attack me solo or in a group, if you win I will pass all those who show the passing skill set to be a Kohona-nin.

Come on then, what are you all waiting for?"

At this, she flickered and disappeared, proving to be a quickly created illusion of some kind. The two older Genin, Kapef and Leuza, both male, basic big dumb look, said to Naruto:

"Stay out of our way squirt, we need to graduate this year and you will only get in our way, watch and learn as we tag-team this aggro teacher!

With that, came a slight whistling sound, growing louder as time progressed. Tick tock, Naruto back-flipped out of the way as Anko came roaring down upon Kapef and Leuza. Both boys took the hit, then attempted to grab her outstretched arms to use as a pivot point for spin-kicks.

Too bad for them the arms disintegrated into mud, as the rest of the Anko-clone met the same fate. Too late, the boys turned around to find two Kunai being held in their faces, ready to stab their eyes out.

Anko, grinning wildly and triumphantly while thinking about her soon to be bought and eaten victory dango, said

"Rule number one boys, never let the enemy Shinobi get behind you. It is all too easy to sli… Shit!

Naruto had silently created a visible Chakra no Tate between Anko and his fellow Genin. The boy pushed his current instructor and long-time teacher away from the little group quickly, while he still had her.

Anko, swearing all the while, broke free from the Tate with a quick Chakra charged kick upwards, she then charged the boys directly. This time, Kapef and Leuza acted commendably; throwing delaying Kunai that Anko dodged around, while Naruto prepared his Jutsu again. This time however, Naruto conjured seven small visible Tates in the area in front of them, right in the path of the charging Kuionichi.

She quickly slowed and leapt backwards as the shields of energy whizzed quickly towards her, flanking the sides to prevent escape. They proved to be too fast to avoid totally, as one came within about an arms length of Anko it would suddenly expand, from a flat curved disc shape to a Cylinder, smashing into her.

After a while of dodging both the cylindrical Tates and thrown Kunai, Anko leapt up, using a Tate as a platform, performing the Sen'eijashu at the same time.

The snakes headed rapidly towards the small group, temporarily united for a common goal. Naruto was unable to move while using the multiple Tates; the strain was too much so he yelled

"Go guys, attack from the flanks, Ill distract her. Go now!"

Reacting with commendable speed under the circumstances, Leuza proceeded to flank Anko, reading his last Kunai and Shuriken as he did so. For some reason Kapef simply stood there as the snakes closed in, only forming four handseals at the last minute as he called out the name of a simple yet effective technique:

"Kawarimi no Jutsu!"

The boy, proving to be smarter than your average stupid-looking-Shinobi did not replace himself with any random object, oh no. He switched positions with Anko herself, putting her directly in front of Naruto, in the path of her own Jutsu, as he muttered under his breath

"Think fast sensei."

There was no time to react and for once Anko, the so-called snake-slut, was completely caught off guard. The hebi (snakes) slammed into the ground all around and on Anko, who inadvertently shielded Naruto from those same hebi.

A large dust cloud rose, preventing the older Genin from analysing the situation by eye. Going in would be suicidal and they could not attack blindly for fear of hitting their comrade.

As any good Shinobi would do, they improvised, creating and ordering in a few Bunshin each, to investigate. The scene that met the illusionary eyes was quite amusing. Their Sensei had been smashed backwards by the erratically aimed, yet powerful and violent hebi, right into Naruto.

They were both unconscious lying in a tangled heap, Anko having slammed into the short Boy's head with her spine as she flew backwards. Sniggering slightly, the academy students separated and woke up their comrade and temporary adversary.

After a bit of mutual complaining by Anko (ahh my bloody back, Shan'aro) and Naruto (Wonder why my head hurts? Ah well) the Sensei told them her verdict.

"Yosh little people (here she studiously ignored the triplicate death glare) its time that I judged you on your various performances. You two older ones did all right at first, for students, yet you wanted to automatically exclude the blonde, because you assumed him to be weak. As you saw, that is an unintelligent assumption.

To your credit though, after he saved the both of you from having nice splattered blood over your faces (At which point she was grinning sadistically) you did work well as a team on the fly, meshed together by random lot. The life of a Shinobi is often exactly the same way; you might always work with those you know the capacity of, or the complete opposite.

Learning to think with the changing situation is the most important part of being Genin, as opposed to stupid academy students. You all passed that part, all also showing powerful and useful applications of Jutsu while you did so. Speed and muscle seem to be good enough to start, so it's all good.

You all pass, just remember you two (at this Kapef and Leuza stiffened noticeably) remember that the more resources you use, the higher the chance of victory. Just because you two know eachother's capacity and not the Blonde's does not mean to exclude every other Shinobi in your team, indeed that is a fast and efficient way to die.

As for you, Blondie (at this Naruto bristled and pouted at the same time, almost masterfully pathetic it was) trying to shoulder all of the burden at once against a stronger opponent while you have two capable ally's is a miscalculation that will get you, then them killed just as fast as any opponent could.

That's being said, you all showed the aforementioned inventiveness and bravery in a dangerous situation and fought well. All three of you pass, tell Iruka so and whether or not you want to be Genin when you get back ok? Right, well Ja Ne guys, Dango time!"

With this uncharacteristically long, yet sincere speech concluded Anko Raised both hands in an unseen gesture (mysterious eh?) and vanished in a 'poof' of white smoke.

Walking back, the now friendly two twelve year olds and Naruto discussed the little battle, Naruto was asked about his Jutsu so he decided to be honest, as it would soon be known to whoever his new team-mates were to be anyway.

"Well guys, I have no family Jutsu or style, so I needed some to be on an equal footing. My control sucks because of lots of Chakra in the body coils, so my Chakra no Tate forces allot of Chakra out to shield, repel and do various other stuff.

I suppose it is a reflection of my own style, as most personally created Jutsu would be.

Erm, can't really do the usual Jutsu either yet, my control really is bad for low cost stuff, like the Kawarimi and Bunshin, I can only do the Rope replacement and the Henge properly so far."

Both boys thought about that for a moment, before nodding, it did seem like a good choice to roll with your strength, and if there was no Jutsu or style available to do so, just create one.

Naruto did hastily inform them how many hours he had to put into the technique though, how hard to perform and master an essentially imperfect Jutsu can be.

Kapef nodded again and said thoughtfully

"Yes it must be hard to be doing the new thing, yet when you look at it, our greatest leader and strongest Shinobi was the Fourth and it is said he made lots of techniques, like the Legendary Rasengan (spiralling sphere).

He must have found it worth the effort to create new stuff, both for the personalised factor and that no enemy Shinobi would know how to react to a new Jutsu, after all there is no proper counter to something that has never been seen eh?"

Both boys agreed with the proven stupid looking, yet truly insightful child and both apologised for discounting Naruto at the onset of the short yet difficult battle.

Arriving at the academy and their separate classes, the boys promised to meet up again sometime, Naruto loudly proclaimed that they would all go to Ichiraku's Ramen stand and eat together.

"Sure thing, Naruto"

Both of the older two said and off they went, to their doom, ahhahaha. Cough, all right, to their respective boring classes, there to wait for the rest of the hopeful Genin to finish testing. But that is close to their doom, the doom oft their imagination and patience factor in the future anyway.

Naruto was the first back, startling Iruka greatly, who was finishing cleaning up the classroom.

"Naruto… have you finished already?"

Iruka somewhat hopefully asked, although he did not actively hate Naruto like the village, there was still some resentment there for the boy and his supposed role in Iruka's family dying.

Naruto peered at him blankly, before smiling widely and truly and saying in a for once moderate tone of voice:

"Yes Iruka-sensei, we all were passed by Anko-sensei just before, she said to inform you of that fact. At this time I would also like to state that I choose to advance to Genin status.

No offence intended sensei, but I have learned what I can here, it is time to start as a Shinobi of the hidden leaf!"

Iruka, though outwardly and inwardly shocked, nodded and noted Naruto's pass and Genin graduation status on his notebook, before telling Naruto not unkindly to sit down and wait for the rest of the class.

The Blonde proceeded to do just that, being unable though to suppress an audible sigh at that time.

'Waiting waiting, oh what fun it is not to while time doing nothing.' Naruto idly thought as he stared at various corners of the room for a few minutes. Well, more like fifteen minutes, until something happened, in the form of Hyuga Hinata entering the class.

She glanced covertly at Naruto, reddening even now when she saw him staring at her, turned back to Iruka to give her results. She softly stated, with barely a stutter:

"Ohio Iruka-sensei, Watashi-wa (I, so it is thought anyway) pa-passed this exam, though the others from a different class failed. Also, I request to be put forward to join a Genin team, when it is convenient to do so."

Congratulations Hinata (as her teacher he does not use any suffixes, such as –san), Your father will be proud I am sure."

At this, Hinata dimmed a little, surprising Iruka, who expected her to be happy at the thought, before joining Naruto at the seats.

The blonde told Hinata how his test went, she smiled at his random pick of Sensei, Naruto thought it made her look 'really cute', resulting in more slight staring and blushing, respectively.

He then said in his usual not quite clued in way that she should smile more often, she looked peaceful and happy while doing so. After some more awkward time Naruto explained the fight and the two new friends he had made, Kapef and Leuza.

Hinata then told him about her own battle/evaluation. She had been unlucky enough to pair up with two snobbish older students, both had been quickly disabled by the most basic Genjutsu, cast by her instructor, Yuuhi Kurenai, the Genjutsu mistress herself.

Being able to Kai (dispel) the Jutsu herself, Hinata found herself soloing a Jounin. She used Shinobi tactic number nineteen (yes I made it up, sue me), when horribly outnumbered, surrender and survive.

She also combined it with Shinobi tactic number three: When the enemy lets their guard down, strike. She had done so when Kurenai assumed a lecturing posture, with not the well-known Hyuga Juken strikes of her family, but simply academy taught Taijutsu.

Quickly surprising the far older and more experienced woman (therefore, somewhat arrogant in her own ability) Hinata had shifted from Juken to academy Taijutsu styles, giving her an unpredictable factor which allowed for several closed Tenketsu (Chakra points) in the upper body area.

Although Kureani regained her wind and defeated Hinata, she admitted that in a mission Kurenai would now be crippled, being unable to cast Genjutsu with the closed Tenketsu, in the case of that theoretical mission Hinata would have succeeded.

Hinata had been commended on a fluid and effective strategy, yet Kurenai did ask her what factor motivated her to be so reckless, instead of just hiding and waiting for a moment to attack. Hinata had simply said

"Well sensei, as soon as I retreated you would have been able to cast higher level Genjutsu, which I am useless against, also a close friend said 'when your back is to the wall, fight fast, give it 100 and never look back'. I think he is right, it is best to always try your hardest and when losing, to pull out a desperate strategy if necessary."

Needless to say, Hinata had passed while the other two, not even showing basic dispelling ability, or even dodging skill, had failed. During his congratulations and more talking about various things, the clock ticked on.

Eventually the rest of the class straggled in, in ones or twos, even threes. The 'great Uchiha Sasuke' had failed, his so called team, Ino and Sakura had eventually degraded to attacking each other. Sasuke had ignored them (unsurprisingly) and failed to defeat his Jounin instructor, Mizuki, with a feeble Basic Katon Jutsu (Remember people, Sasuke could do the Katon Jutsu by age nine. But that doesn't mean he could do it reliably, In this by ten he still has too little Chakra to make it hot enough to melt stuff.)

Shikamaru and Choji had been judged together, Shikamaru had trapped their instructor, a man named Ibiki in his Kagemane no Jutsu (shadow-something) while Choji had attempted to crush him with a meat tank Taijutsu style attack.

Ibiki had simply jumped up when Choji approached, Shika's technique lacking any real holding power at that point, while he froze up as Choji accidentally rolled into him. They had both surrendered after that, the last member of their team had not even lasted that long.

The reason for their late appearance was Shikamaru doing some cloud watching, while Choji joined him with his ever-present bag of chips in hand. No other students had passed, Kiba not doing as badly as the previously mentioned two, yet making a stupid tactical error at the end, (do not Tsuga your allies by accident) which had cost his team their victory points.

There was one exception; Abarume Shino had passed his test, using a bug-clone to surprise one Gekko Hayate, while draining him of all energy with more bugs, the Abarume clan speciality. He also later demonstrated his knowledge of the academy basic Taijutsu and Ninjutsu, at Hayate's request.

The silent boy had passed with flying colours, not being strong or even experienced was made up form a great deal by his advanced use of the bug-clones and general advanced tactics.

This wrapped up the day, with Hinata and Naruto foregoing their usual training for once as they had the afternoon off in preparation for the coming days. The days where they would experience first-hand the dangers of being a Shinobi of Konoha.

Hinata went home to tell her father the good news, both about her own and the other students results, upon doing so politely with a bowed head as she had been raised to do she almost missed the incredulous look on her father's usually impassive or frowning face.

He quickly recovered, as a slightly happier look graced his features and he said

"Very good my daughter, I am sure you will continue to make our clan proud. You are dismissed."

This was a far-cry from his usual disparaging comments on her slow progress in the clan Style, as Hinata walked off she dared to activate the Byakugan to see her father's face behind her.

He mouthed the silent words as evidently thinking aloud 'Excellent, now the council will let up on Hinata being the weakest heir so far. They will have to eat their words when she is a Chunin before the last Uchiha is even Genin status.'

Smiling slightly as she deactivated her bloodline, Hinata went to take a long luxuriant bath. Ut was likely that in the days to come, she would need to be as fresh and recovered as possible, so best to make good use of the current time.

Naruto had a similar idea, though his 'best time usage' was treating himself to Ichiraku's Ramen, of which he ate slightly less since buying the make-your-own Ramen Akimitchi kits.

While there he saw Iruka, who after a reasonably polite greeting, essential ignored our blonde protagonist. The man soon finished his meal before leaving, evidently not wanting to be in Naruto's company any longer than necessary.

The Ramen stand owner, Ichiraku himself, looked on this scene sadly as Naruto sat and glowered into his Ramen moodily for a while, before nearly immersing himself in the food as a way to attempt to forget the coldness others showed him.

Even Iruka, who did not hate him out of hand, could not stand to be around him any time duty did not proscribe it. The looks people gave the boy, cold and flat, were enough to curdle milk.

Those who did not hate Naruto and treated him well Naruto could count on the fingers of one hand:

Hyuga Hinata

Ojii-san (Sandiame Hokage)

Ichiraku

Anko

Shino

Even Hinata, his only close friend, was just that, a friend. There were no family members at all, no parents to look after him, no grandparents to spoil him rotten, no uncles and aunts to teach him important facts of life (This plant can be dangerous, do not eat it, etc). No siblings to relate to and spent time with, to compete madly with.

Naruto had started to think of Hinata as a sister, she was the closest person to him in this life, Ojii-san was like a Grandfather, albeit an absent-minded often busy grandad, Anko as a sort of Aunt, helping him to learn Jutsu, yet that was it. Still no parent figures to look after him and all children needed parents. Those without them tended to grow up and lose their child-like innocence all too soon. Naruto was in danger of this happening to him as well, despite everything he was still innocent and pure, not bitter or brooding, even vengeful for what he had been through.

The tolerance for a truly trying life this boy emitted was nothing short of remarkable, yet after all the Ramen distended his little stomach and he decided to head home, the boy still had to bear the loneliness of his cold, solitary apartment.

Well there you have it, I am going to start heating things up now, the first chapters were a setting, kind of, to show my painted-portrait-version of Naruto, and outline his cold and lonely yet hopeful existence and routine. In the next chapters things will start to head truly off the path of Cannon and innocence, into the twisted plotlines of my subconscious.

The comfortable existence Naruto currently leads will be irrevocably shattered…

I currently have a good idea of what to generally type in the next two or three chapters, so they should come out sooner and whackier than ever. Hopefully I shall see you all again soon, rate and review please, it helps me to overcome my significant shortcomings as both a writer and a creator of monsters (my term for my personally twisted, odd plots). Ja Ne!


	6. Chapter 6 Life Is Good

Disclaimer: This author does not own Naruto in any way, shape or form and this fiction piece is not written for profit. It is a freely written and distributed fic, for the purpose of both the reader (s?) and author's enjoyment.

Hello again people, this will hopefully start to grind towards some conclusive story meat, I am unsure whether or not to introduce two slightly modified characters now or later, meh now is good enough for the author, so you all can enjoy or not, as the fancy takes you.

Hope y'all enjoy, there will be scenes of violence and gore particularly in the first section, probably about three pages long, skip over if you are squeamish, though it is important to the storyline (I hope). There is also more violence towards the end.

Eh the two characters in the first bit are in Naruto, specifically the Manga at separate times, I have modified their ages and probably appearances to suit this fiction piece, I am unsure of the Canon ages, to tell the truth I do not really care either. You will not recognise the names if you do not read the Manga, reasonably recent chapters too.

-Location and date unknown-

The young boy runs through the sparse woodland, the wind whistling through the blackened, burnt trees. Those same trees made sinister shaped shadows in the afternoon light, adding to the child's hysteria. Panting, falling yet desperately scrambling on with hands and knees, the boy continues on his chosen path.

His face literally ripples with pain and shadowed intent as his body comes to a wrenching halt, the whimpering boy then turns back whence he came. His face shows an animalistic intent now, the face of a hunter, determined to bring down its prey. The eyes turn from blue-green to black as night, then back again, flickering as the boy twitches backwards and forwards.

The primal side urging him to retrace his steps, the little boy just wanting to flee, flee forever and escape the never-ending nightmare that makes his existence.

After a struggle that visibly takes its toll on him, the boy turns and flees into the night, in his original direction: away from people.

Running again, this time as much to not give in to the urges within as to get away, the boy slammed into a solid object that felt like a brick wall. He looked up to see an object of his nightmares, a teenage boy.

"No, no please, run, run now before it… ARGH" The young boy falls to the ground in pain as strange markings appear over his body, in the shape of small diamond-like chunks.

Now whimpering, the boy winces as he spasms in pain, whispering to the teenager "Please… go, go now… I cannot stop it any longer, you will be killed, please..."

The teenager looked on impassively, with a slight frown marring his features.

"No kid, I shall stay with you, whatever is coming I can and will deal with it."

The child visibly slumps, before the chunk pattern takes over half of his face and parts of the body, turning them grey as a cruel light begins to glow in his right eye, turning it a different colour. "Time… and past time… to KILL!"

Grinning maniacally, The child leaps up faster than the eye can see and smashes his arms into the older boy's torso. One arm annihilates the rib cage, grasps and tears out the heart, while the other disembowels him messily, mashing and tearing out the stomach, intestines and various other organs.

After this, the manic kid looks to the sky, blood spraying from the mutilated corpse all over his small form, as he laughs loud and long. A sick and twisted, yet oddly free and unconstrained sound it is too.

The child then proceeded to lay waste to the surrounding area, leaving blood and felled trees all over the place, before the strange marks quickly sucked back into his body. This left him to fall unconscious from the strain to his body (Ripping through trees and into a person is tiring work, after all).

The sun set on a violently rearranged area of the sparse northern woodland – the scene of a truly terrifying power rearing its ugly head.

Waking up in the morning and yawning loudly, after an unprecedented good night's rest; the boy looked around the area, gasping in horror as he did. Smashed trees, blood splattered everywhere and no sign of… the unfortunate youth who would not leave well enough alone.

"So you are finally awake eh Gaki? I must admit, it was an unexpected move, you gutting me like a baka fish, good job by the way, if my Jutsu was not active that would have been the end."

The boy looked up towards the speaker and saw a shocking sight. That same teenager stood before the child, whole and unharmed. The morning light shone upon him, a fairly normal looking guy overall, long swept back white-blonde hair, average looking face and height, red eyes.

After some mutual staring the kid blurted out "But… you should be dead mister!"

The teenager chuckled, before offering the kid his hand and his name "I'm Hidan, a Nuke-nin of the hidden mist."

The kid took the proffered hand, levering himself upright, before muttering "Juugo is the name, not a Shinobi though."

"Ok Juugo, what is with the being in the near deserted wilderness alone thing? Not to mention that awesome power you displayed earlier, you moved so damn fast and strongly."

Hidan waited patiently as the child looked around fearfully, before looking him in the eyes and stating coldly, his innocent child's voice seeming out of place

"You really should go first, but here is a bone. I am here because I am a monster, this place seemed deserted enough to let out some steam without killing anyone. How about you?"

Hidan chuckled again "Well kid I shall not deny that you are a monster (at this Juugo's eyes dropped), I am here to perfect my immortality Jutsu away from prying eyes, after that it will be time to search for the teachings of Jashim, the god that I serve."

After this little statement Juugo stared wide eyed at the odd teenager, before he said

"Immortality Jutsu, does that mean you can regrow tissue and stuff? Also who, or what is Jashim?"

Hidan frowned slightly "Well Juugo, it basically means that while I have Chakra in my body, it cannot be destroyed, you probably didn't notice but you could not smash my heart, it simply tore in two before you dropped it.

After you fell I grabbed my organs and shoved them back in, the Chakra that is refined in them reattached them back to this body. It took me ages to find out the precise way to do it and it is still imperfect.

I cannot use Chakra to return the severed parts to the body yet; also if my head is cut off or totally smashed I will still die, but it is getting more effective, the organs' survival proves that.

As for Jashim, I found an old book detailing the old god that his worshippers can gain mystic powers relating to their Chakra pathways if they worship the god and undertake the proper rituals.

After enough of this dedicated worship and ritual, the followers of Jashim will fall to neither natural nor human causes, becoming truly immortal. I serve the god and search for his testament, scattered and hidden across the earth, for all of the commandments he passed down, so I can follow them while I recruit new followers to this nearly extinct religion."

Juugo had a pensive look on his face, as he inquired

"That sounds… fulfilling Hidan, a just goal to strive for in life."

The teen puffed out his chest and said proudly (loudly too)

"Yes, it is my life now, far more meaningful than being a mist-nin. They are the weakest, shunning and murdering their most powerful, who possess bloodline limits. That is also the reason for Jashim's followers being hunted down, their uncanny survival Jutsu was thought to be a clan based bloodline limit.

The hidden mist village and country has expended much in the way of time and resources, literally burying all traces of the mighty god, yet he shall endure, using my spirit alone if need be!"

The young boy looked up at him, with a guarded hint of happiness in his eyes, as he softly said

"I will join your cause Hidan, to follow the god Jashim, if you will give me one allowance at any required time."

Eyeing the boy, Hidan asked, "What allowance Gaki?"

"Let me hurt you when I am in my rages, so I will not hurt any other. I… cannot bear it alone, the urge to kill and main that is pulled from within me, even the Hidden Leaf nuke-nin Orochimaru could not help me, yet you can, by being…"

"A practise dummy?" Asked Hidan directly.

"Yes" Stated the young monster just as directly.

"Then I accept you into the ranks of Jashim, young convert, you will not be my underling, we will be equals, all after will be our underlings; they will follow while we pave the way for the great god Jashim!"

With that, the unlikely duo set off for paths unknown.

Current day, Wednesday afternoon, Konoha.

Naruto yawned and awoke, shivering slightly. His dream had seemed so real, as If he were an observer of the strange woodland scene. And those two people, such gore…

His mind, unable to deal with such things, shunted the information into a file marked 'do not read' for later nightmares, while Naruto got up to face the new day, two months on from where we last left him.

Reattaching his prosthetic leg, which he had learnt how to consciously detach and reattach, he jumped out of bed and into the usual morning activities. This included consuming a steaming bowl of Ramen (Haggis and Toadsdale shrooms) before he left the apartment, fresh and ready for the day ahead. Or so he thought.

The morning training with Anko had become more sporadic; she was undertaking many more missions at the moment due to Kohona's current popularity with the world.

In compensation for this, Anko had upped the severity of their training. Now, the goal was to survive two hours of intense hunting, by any means possible.

Naruto also would not know if Anko was available on any given day until he entered training area 44, which they now trained in. If Anko located and attacked him in the first hour, she was there, if not solo survival training in the deadly forest of death became the morning work out.

Luckily she was out on some mission or other, so Naruto only had to contest with the violent animals in the area, as opposed to the sadistic human. An easy choice, if there was one to make. A dangerous beast might very well kill one; a dangerous human is quite likely to, especially when hunting in her home.

After survival training there was the academy. There had been no vacancies in Genin teams as of yet for most ten-year-olds, they were assigned by age, as after twelve you must be a Genin or pick another career.

The most noted exception was Hyuga Hinata. Being the heiress of her clan, after her unexpected passing qualification her father had pressured for a spot on any team, so she could become strong faster.

Naruto was slightly lonely. The class had lost flair without his only friend to talk to. He hoped she was doing well, yet it was intensely frustrating having to endure the pointless lectures, when he had essentially already graduated.

True, he still could not cast a proper Bunshin, but Anko had already known that, she cared not for any one Jutsu, the important thing is the ability and will to persevere, this Naruto had in abundance.

After sitting down and the usual role-call, Iruka called out "Uzumaki Naruto, come down here please."

The slightly confused boy did so, noticing many of the class giving him resentful – even jealous looks. The exception was Shino, who merely gave him his usual near-imperceptible nod of the head. The silent boy had not wanted to become a Genin just yet, though was expected to next year.

Iruka informed him of an opening in an older team.

"You have been selected to fill in a spot on Morino Ibiki's team, do you accept?"

Naruto considered it; he had seen Ibiki in a bar once or twice when he had to track down a drunk Anko and attempt to get her to train. The silent man always cracked a smile at his antics, which usually got him into a Kunai dodging match with the drunken, enraged woman.

He got the feeling that the guy was not a prick, besides he did not stare at him with those damnably cold eyes, like most of the rest of the village was in the habit of doing. This was the clincher for the young Jinnchuriki.

"Hai, Iruka-sensei, I would be honoured to join Ibiki-sensei's team. It has been a learning experience here sensei, thanks and good luck to you."

Naruto opted for a diplomatic response for once, who knows he might have to work with/for Iruka in the future. It was best to stay polite, even though lying about his boring lessons was extremely taxing at best, torturous at the worst.

After Iruka's slightly surprised look, then also slightly warmer expression, the man told Naruto where to meet with the team, in one of the basic training areas. He decided to throw Naruto a bone, told him that Ibiki would likely be testing his limits that day, so to be sure to do his best.

Agreeing with his now former sensei, Naruto decided one lasting memory would serve for his 'dear' class-members, he sucked in a huge breath and yelled out (almost shrilly in that annoying voice of his) as he left the room

"Bye guys, hope you Baka can graduate soon!"

He sprinted across the rooftops carelessly, a method of travel he had copied from a passing Chunin a week prior. It worked, yet he easily overcorrected on landings, once he had even smashed through the roof of a building. Luckily it was an abandoned one, near his own apartment block.

Eventually reaching the area, Naruto cautiously approached, in full sight. He saw neither hide nor hair of Ibiki, a distinctively scarred man, or his potential team-mates. He was not quite dim enough to assume that he would be accepted immediately. There would be a testing of his skills and knowledge.

Rounding a corner, the boy heard decidedly deep-pitched laughter. There was a sight to horrify any eyes there as well, Naruto observed as he stealthily peered from around a tree trunk at the scene.

Two young men were lying face down in pools of dark red blood. A man with his back turned to the boy was strapping a large scroll to his back. One of the prone young men made a bubbling sound and stirred slightly, probably as a result of drowning in his own blood. The man turned around to reveal…

Morino Ibiki, in the damaged flesh, his face twisted in a macabre grin, the scars pulling and twisting his face so it seemed inhuman. He strode over to the bubbling man and said coldly

"Well Danzo, your father would be ashamed, both of my students failed to stop me from stealing the forbidden scroll of seals, despite my training. Die with honour at the least, boy!"

At this, he raised his leg to stomp the life out of the prone man. As his foot came down he heard a quiet voice "Ninpou: Chakra no Tate Jutsu!"

A blue shield covered both prone men from Ibiki, as his foot smashed into the shield it bounded upwards, compressing as it went. This hurled the big man up and away, about twenty feet. Ibiki landed on his feet (like a ninja!) and grinned again, at the boy in the tan trench coat this time.

"Well boy, you have courage, hopefully you will be a bigger challenge than those two fools. You cannot stop me though; you are just a little gaki after all. Come then!"

Not saying a word, the blonde charged directly at Ibiki. Assessing the situation, he understood that the other man would be faster, stronger and likely smarter than he. This was discounting the battle experience the man would have acquired over the years of Shinobi life.

With this evaluation, Naruto understood that to defeat this man would require swift, violent action. As he approached, Ibiki watching lazily, he performed the four seals for the Kawarimi Jutsu. Ibiki snorted in derision, this little kid thought he could win with that basic Jutsu? Yet Naruto did not stop there.

He formed the ram with one hand, his own seal, the Karana with the other. Ibiki's eyes widened; the ram seal was merely a concentration aid, yet the other was like none he had ever seen. A small icicle of fear formed along his spine, as his feet… warmed?

Naruto looked the man in the eyes, mouthed the singular word 'sorry', before yelling out

"Kitsune Kai" (Fox Release)

Morino Ibiki felt a sudden pressure, then release, as the ground rushed to meet him. Naruto had aimed a modified Kawarimi at his boots, heating them before they imploded, crushing the feet to the size of pinheads.

Naruto stopped his charge, then slowly walked up to the now prone man.

"It had to be done, though I regret crippling you, you will surrender now, or die. No threat to Konoha can be tolerated by its Shinobi, you have been warned." The boy softly said.

Ibiki managed a grin through a mask of evident pain "You pass!" Then, with a slight Poofing sound, his body disappeared. Naruto spun on his heels, only to see the young men from before, now healthy and smiling, standing next to their sensei, Morino Ibiki.

"Welcome to the team Naruto. To my left is Danzo; to the right is Yuu. They are both senior Genin, so you will have to work hard to keep up with them, though with those two Jutsu you demonstrated that side of things should be good enough.

We decided to test you in a no-win situation, facing a traitorous Jounin with no warning, who was willing to kill hostages. You passed with flying colours, crippling my Kage Bunshin quite ruthlessly.

We will now commence endurance training for the day; we will build you up to Genin status strength, soon enough you will have some muscle on that skinny carcass! Any questions?"

There were not, so off they went. Naruto kept up with the others admirably, which surprised them to no end. After a few hours Ibiki determined that the boy already had the required stamina to perform missions. They tested his strength, which was not huge, yet a Chibi Tate with no seals, used to overbalance his grappling opponent quickly turned the tables.

He demonstrated his techniques, including his solid, yet very prone and lifeless looking clone. He told them about learning new techniques, Anko's hell training (insert sympathetic shudders here), and her advice on always using your own creations, it is tailor made personally for you after all.

The boy would not usually give away so much of his life and personal techniques to strangers, but they looked at him with admiration and happiness, not hatred and fear like the villagers and some random Shinobi would.

Also they were now his team-mates, trusted with his life and vice-versa on missions. It was only fair that he let them know what he could and could not do in a sticky situation. Perhaps the first time that Naruto set his feelings aside and did his duty was that day.

Authors note: Danzo is the son of the manga Danzo and looks like a younger, fitter him. Yuu is shown in the Anime episode 68, talking to Ibiki during the invasion. He is the one with the Hiatiae cloth covering all his hair, with the exception of a pineapple like sprout in the back. I have borrowed his face and basically Oc'ed the rest.

They sparred for a while, Naruto saw that the two older boys had a good grasp of all the basic fighting styles and Jutsu, with special emphasis on tactics. Knowing when and where to Kawarimi for example is often the deciding factor in all subsequent manoeuvres.

He showed them also at that time his idea for a new fighting style, called the Seppeku fist (suicidal fist, or is it Hari Kari? Meh, Seppeku will do for now), based off absorbing physical attacks then attacking while the opponent was off balance.

They made some improvements to his style; it needed speed overall to pull off the various flips, twists and grapples required to shift the weight of others to an advantageous position. Plus that makes it easier to dodge attacks, which would often be necessary for some particular attacks (like the famous Hyuga Taijutsu style: Juken.)

All in all, an inspiring new day, without the influence of the academy to dull its glow.

Being unable to find Hinata in the late afternoon, Naruto simply went home, to his Ramen, shower and bed.

The young boy could be seen early the next morning, hurrying towards the Hokage tower, after rushing though his morning necessities (even eating Ramen!) It was time to receive his first real mission!

He met with his team, Ibiki and the boys gave sim slight nods before they all headed off to the briefing room. They entered to see the Hokage himself in the centre seat of a curving table, various officials clustered around the same table.

He greeted Naruto, who responded with an enthusiastic "Ojii-san!" then gave them their mission for the day, a D-rank with the goal of doing the shopping for various special-Jounin. Many were currently too busy with the influx of missions to do their own shopping so to the Genin received the responsibility.

Naruto, showing uncommon manners, thanked the Third for the mission, before speeding off, dragging his team along. Truth to tell, the boy was a tad anxious about trying to purchase items from different stores, most shop-keepers hated him and would not offer him their wares, for any price.

Some of the greedy simply overcharged the boy, those were his largest fear, they could not exceed their budget to acquire the required items. It turned out that with Ibiki, Danzo and Yuu most people were wary, yet polite and reasonably helpful to the young Jinnchuriki.

Nobody wanted to incur the wrath of the kind, yet firm Third Hokage, who was well known for liking the boy and looking out for his welfare. Being cruel to him while alone was one thing, when the village muscle, the Shinobi, supported him; it became another thing entirely.

This was the largest reason that no angry mobs had ever formed to 'drive out the demon'; they were disbanded from the get-go by the Hokage and the majority of the Shinobi populace, who could put aside personal feelings to do what they were ordered. After all, a sharp tool is the best kind, yet one must be wary that it never turns in one's hands, Shinobi could easily stage a rebellion, with horrifying casualties no matter the result.

They finished the simple mission in two hours, so delivered all of the items to the various Jounin's homes themselves. Naruto had two such deliveries to make, one Hatake Kakashi and a familiar name, Mitarashi Anko.

He decided to get Anko's delivery done first, it would be a good form of training, getting to the tower in the centre of the forest with the various bulky bags. He managed the feat, though not without some scratches and a close call with a giant snake "I swear Hebi-sensei summons those things to hunt me periodically, cruel woman she is."

There was nobody home, so he dumped off her bags in the mail slot (fortunately it was large, to accommodate such packages), before carefully leaving her home in the Forest Of Death.

He went to the address of this Kakashi person, a nice housing area that housed several small clans and many families of reasonable political influence or wealth.

Upon knocking loudly on the door and having it subsequently open, Naruto saw a shocking sight, which prompted him to blurt out

"Whitey, why are you at home, should you not be looking after Hinata-chan?"

The sight in question, a tall man with a shock of pure-white hair gave a blank one eyed look (the left eye being covered by his Hiatiae) and said "What?"

Naruto looked closer and realised that this man, while resembling the ANBU member he had dubbed 'Whitey' was not one and the same. The first big difference was the coverage of one eye, secondly being the lessening of lines on his face. Finally this man did not have the same look of patient energy that Whitey did; his face reflected tired boredom and incomprehension with the current situation.

This all flashed through the boy's head in the time it took for him to bow and hurriedly say

"Gomen mister, you look quite a lot like someone I know, who is on guard duty for Hyuga Hinata at this time. I am supposed to bring these groceries to Kakashi, do you know him?"

"In that case, I am Kakashi, yo!" Stated the lazy looking man.

Naruto gave him the shopping, which he took in one hand to make sure he kept firm grip on a small, orange and pink book in his other hand. The book in question had an odd picture on the front cover, a man chasing a fleeing green haired woman.

Kakashi noted Naruto's gaze and chuckled "You like the Icha Icha Paradise series neh?"

To which Naruto responded, slightly curiously "Never heard of them, looks interesting though."

"Keep an eye out for them later on then, they are readable by eighteen you know? Well I am off Ja Ne!"

With that Kakashi stashed the bags inside the dwelling, an average family sized home, closed the door and left, via disappearing in a poof of smoke.

Naruto, vowing to learn the 'poof' Jutsu's secret also left the scene, going back to his new team for training.

Meanwhile Kakashi searched out his father, the famous White Fang of Konoha. He found him exactly where the gaki had said, maintaining a secret watch on Hyuga Hinata, who was with her own new team planting potatoes in a field for their own daily mission.

"Yo, father whats happening?" Kakashi asked quietly as he alighted next to his father on the large tree, which was ideal for their spying purpose.

"Not much son, why, is something wrong?"

"No. Not at all, it is just that I met a Genin gaki who called me 'Whitey' while he delivered my groceries. He then apologised and told me where to find this Whitey. I had to see if it was you, the feared White Fang of Konoha, reduced to mere Whitey!"

The man sighed; it looked like the gaki's nickname was going to stick. A pity, he mused as he started to explain how he met Naruto, while still keeping a watchful eye on the Hyuga heiress.

Kakashi had a quiet laugh at his father's expense. The little gaki did not even know of the White Fang! Still, the nickname was a fitting one; he would have to remember it for the next time he was on a mission with the senior ANBU member.

After his team and their training was finished, Naruto actually succeeded in finding Hinata.

She was sitting atop a building opposite from the Hyuga estate, brooding. He landed almost silently next to her, his training with Ibiki and the team was beginning to pay off. It mostly consisted of stealth and tactics exercises, stealth Naruto was good at, but had a tendency to land too loudly after leaping a good distance. Strategy – well, training was definitely needed.

"Yo Hinata." He said calmly.

She took one wide-eyed look at the dirty blonde boy before bursting into tears and flinging herself at his tan trenchcoat.

Hugging the sobbing girl, Naruto, though perplexed still managed to say

"There, there Hinata-chan, what is wrong?

"Na-naruto, they are going to s-send me back to the a-academy, I c-cant stand it, new Jutsu take me too long to master, according to my baka Sensei!"

After calming the girl down she managed to better explain her situation. The Jounin sensei of the group, Maharaji Conjenko was a man after her father's heart. Cold and ruthless. He insisted that Hinata thoroughly learn one new elemental Jutsu each week, starting with fire elemental basics.

She was capable of moulding her Chakra to the water element and to an extent earth, but not Lightning or Fire at all, making those based Jutsu impractical at best to attempt.

Her Sensei had told her she was off the team until she could use one of each basic Katon (fire) Doton (earth) and Suiton Jutsu. Raiton Jutsu were not required, as few in Konoha even knew any.

She knew it would be impossible to learn those Katon and Doton techniques, hence her current state.

"Hmm, ok Hinata-chan (this time Hinata blushes, noticing the familiar chan) I have the perfect solution. We fake the Jutsu that you are unable to perform with Genjutsu, you are good with those right?" Naruto was excited with his idea, you could tell by the shine in his blue eyes.

"Well… yes Naruto…-kun ("Ano sa ano sa Hinata, no need to use the kun term!") I can use Genjutsu, but I do not know one to simulate an elemental Jutsu…"

Naruto frowned for a second, then brightened again "So we make a new one up, Genjutsu uses Chakra to befuddle the senses right? (Hai). So we just create an illusionary world in which the victim sees you using a particular technique, you can just perform a Suiton so you look the place afterwards."

Naruto flashed his cheeky grin at Hinata, who finally looked happier.

"Ok Naruto-k… Naruto, we will do it!" Stated Hinata firmly

(And no comments on my suggestive wording please, you sick minded people, just remember they are ten at this moment. Ten years old damnation, not teenagers at all. Just being Shinobi does not automatically let them do all the stupid things adults can and do try.)

Hinata was slightly happier, she could merely tell her stern, uptight father that she had to do some training before going back into the active team, as the missions were going to get harder.

This was not untrue, her team was a senior team, used to C and occasinally B-rank missions, which was a good part of the reason her Sensei valued elemental Jutsu, they are good situational Jutsu for defeating bandit groups and the like.

Naruto promised to work on the Jutsu the next day with Hinata, both in the morning and afternoon, before he saw her to the estate.

They arrived at the front gate to see a disgruntled head of house waiting for one of them in particular. Huyga Hiashi frowned down upon his daughter, after giving Naruto a flat look and slight nod of the head, which Naruto returned with the serious, grave look only a child can pull off

"Where have you been daughter? I heard that you were kicked out of your team this day, yet you did not come home. If not for Uzumaki here I would have sent a search party out to locate you. At this point he gave Naruto another flat look, warning him not to spill the beans about the ANBU guard, the boy was only too happy to comply and stay silent.

Hinata was plucking up her courage to talk reasonably to her father when the air became noticeably colder, as if a miasma was floating about the afternoon air. All three people present, plus the two Hyuga branch member Guards, turned as one towards the setting sun.

Its dying rays silhouetted a solitary figure – of pure evil origin. The unknown person raised its arms, with a murmur of "Sen'eijashu", multiple snakes burst out of his sleeves, heading for the party.

Hiashi began to spin, in preparation for a Kaiten (Heavenly Spin), as Naruto moulded Chakra for a Tate, yet neither was fast enough. The two Shinobi, along with the Guards were slammed violently into the solid wall ringing the estate, snakes biting, chomping and tearing as they went.

Hinata had been caught by a thin, long mobile snake, which began to wrap around her with the intent of trapping the girl. She thought fast though and sent the Snake (as well as the other offending hebis) into a minor Genjutsu to stop its movement from fear induced paralysis.

Spinning away from the snake, Hinata formed quick handseals in the proper order, cast a Water bullet Jutsu straight at the source of the now vanished Snakes, which had 'poofed' away once she had cast her mind-snaring technique.

The figure did not move to dodge or block, simply letting the compressed water slam into its upper torso and head, tearing away clothing and flesh alike. The clearing vapour in the air revealed a man standing in the same position, with deathly-white skin and slitted pupils for eyes.

He smiled sadistically and said, in 'American' for added effect "Nice shot, Hinata-_chan_."

Hinata took one step back, managing to cry out "Orochimaru!" At the top of her lungs.

The man, still smiling said "Yes, that is my name. Are you ready to feel what all Shinobi eventually do? Are you ready to die Hinata-_chan_?"

Before the girl could react the man was right in front of her, seemingly in the blink of an eye. He sank his fist into her stomach, as she doubled up in pain an unyielding knee smashed into her jaw, shattering the entire thing and driving her mouth plate and several teeth up into the brain.

Orochimaru, the legendary Sennin himself grabbed a sack out of fat air and quickly threw the now unmoving Hinata into it, before turning to leave.

He glanced at the blue ethereal barrier preventing his escape, before turning back to see a small boy, both hands outstretched, forming the massive entrapping Chakra no Tate.

"You… Will not… have my friend!" He spat out, along with a rather large quantity of blood, the wall around the estate truly had been unyielding before he had made contact with it.

The Hebi-sennin looked annoyed for a moment, before frowning and giving a short laugh.

"Stupid gaki, do you think this crude attempt of a Jutsu can even delay one of the legendary Sannin? Not to mention, I am by far the strongest Sennin. Watch and despair, child."

With that the Hebi contemptuously waved his free hand (the other being occupied with the sack), a lace of visible green Chakra blossomed outwards, striking and shattering the Tate.

Orochimaru wasted no time, disappearing off into the night as the boy staggered on his feet; a Jutsu being unmade like that creates a backlash of energy back into the caster.

Some more Hyuga guards came out of the compound cautiously, looking the area over. Upon seeing a barely standing Naruto, with no sigh of the Head or the heiress, they flitted over to the boy.

"Naruto-san (he was now on good terms with the Branch family guards, after he saved the well-liked heiress previously), what happened?"

"Naruto tiredly looked over at the Hyuga, before gesturing towards the damaged wall

"Hiashi and two guards were smashed into the wall by this Orochimaru guy, he took Hinata as well, I tried to stop him…

He went south."

Naruto and two Hyuga firmed their resolve and took off after the treacherous hebi. The others stayed to warn the Hokage and look after the injured.

While hebi-hunting, the Hyuga told Naruto how Orochimaru was once one of the most talented leaf-nin, that he had betrayed the ideal of the village (all for one, one for all, etc), killing innocents for experiments to become immortal.

He was currently an S-rank missing-nin, as dangerous as any Hokage in battle. It was said that only the other two of the legendary Sannin could match him in a fight.

Naruto made a quick, desperate plan "Ok guys, you circle around the flanks, I will attack directly, spewing my Tates, hopefully he will be slowed down enough for you to grab Hinata and flee. Once you see him defend, go in silently.

This is almost suicidal, you clan will not blame you if you back out now, so what is your answer boys?"

The two Stoic Hyuga merely nodded, punishment not withstanding, they would protect the clan secrets and the heiress with equal determination.

They found Orochimaru after they left the village behind, in a shadow-filled clearing. He was conferring with an ear piece, arranging a pick-up, apparently he had planned to flee to the North, not south side of the village, before being forced that way by Naruto's time consuming Chakra noTate.

They proceeded with their plan, a desperate manoeuvre it was indeed.

Naruto jumped out after giving the others a chance to get in position, launching a literal Tate wave as he went. The boy did get smarter this time though, he condensed as much Chakra into the waves as possible, making them harder to unravel with that odd green lace technique.

Orochimaru merely grinned "A resilient one eh? But really, that slow, weak Jutsu is pathetic, learn some more worthy ones if you can, if not just DIE!"

With that he shot forward, going straight through the Tate's, a blue aura surrounding his body for protection. The boy was simply no match for a Shinobi of such power and experience, even for delaying purposes.

The Sennin slammed his hands together on Naruto's one ear and skull before knocking the boy away with a spring-kick. He then blurred out of existence so quickly that he easily caught and killed the two Hyuga guardsmen. They died with screams on their lips, as well as multiple snakes tearing their way down their esophaguses.

"Fools, time to go then. I can hardly believe that child used such an interesting Jutsu though, he might be worth collecting later on, when I come for the Uchiha."

With that the hebi-sennin departed the scene, still muttering to nobody in particular.

"Pant, pant… Damn hebi-nutter, I am glad that manoeuvre worked well." Mumbled a still slightly stunned Naruto as he staggered to his feet.

As the boy was kicked away, he desperately formed handseals to a Jutsu he had always failed using, concentrated then performed a silent Kawarimi, replacing his trapped friend.

After hearing the thuds of the Hyuga hit the ground, he made a wild guess and used another Kawarimi on one of the Hyuga from within the sack, then there was success!

The hebi had moved off with the sack, unaware of the boy's subterfuge. That same boy managed to get Hinata over his shoulders, piggyback style and carted her back to Konoha.

The blonde wept as he went, for the two Hyuga guards who had not deserved to die in that manner. Lamentably the life of a Shinobi is fast paced and often violent, as the saying goes 'He who lives by the sword dies by the sword.'

Running blindly in the failing light, tripping and barely recovering due to the unaccustomed weight on his back, talking to Hinata all the while reassuringly, Naruto made it back to Konoha, specifically the hospital.

Bursting through the doors, Naruto knew the staff would not listen to or aid him unless he shifted the focus to another, quickly too. Hinata had not responded at all, he was unsure how badly injured she was.

"Hey, need some help here, the Hyuga heiress has been badly wounded!"

'That did the trick', thought the boy as a nurse gently took Hinata and placed her onto an emergency stretcher. They asked him to wait when he attempted to follow them down the hall, not wanting to cause a delay Naruto obeyed.

About one anxious hour later Naruto saw some of the Hyuga main family come out from the hall, with their branch member guards of course. He sprang up and said worriedly

"Hey, how is everyone? I did not stop to check on Hiashi…-sama (deciding to err on the side of caution, Naruto used the hated suffix) or the guards when I ran after that damn hebi."

One of the small party, an old woman who was likely a respected Hyuga elder, responded to the boy, she was known to be especially fond of Hinata.

"Greetings Naruto-san (A large sign of respect from one so arrogant), your bravery is admirable in these sad times, we have cause to thank you yet again for saving our Heiress and clan secrets from that village traitor.

Hiashi is doing well, he will suffer no lasting damage, and the guards will be all right in a few weeks as well. Hinata though was badly injured and suffered severe brain trauma.

She is in a coma at the moment, the doctor tells us she will likely not wake up, nor last beyond the morning. Please do not blame yourself for this (as she noticed his now clenched fists) you did all that could be done and more than any other could."

The rest of the party moved on as Naruto spoke with the elder. He asked her softly as he looked down at the ground

"Can I see Hinata p-please?"

The elder gave an affirmative grunt and nod, all that Naruto needed to rocket down the hall and softly step inside her room.

The girl was merely lying there, as if sleeping off a long day's training. Naruto took a seat by her bed and took her hand, tears leaking out of his normally Stoic eyes.

"Hinata… you were my first friend, I will always remember that you above all others were kind to me at all times. Thankyou Hinata, these words can never convey my gratitude."

The Jinnchuriki, merely an innocent boy who had this day had to deal with death for the first time, stayed in the room and held Hinata's hand all night. She passed on around an hour before the new day dawned.

Her funeral was held a week later, a private affair in the Hyuga compound. The only two non-Hyuga present were the Hokage and one Uzumaki Naruto. It was a beautiful ceremony, a fitting way to say goodbye to a precious person.

Naruto would remember two things for the future, first: never trust a Nuke-nin, second: friendship is important, protecting those friends is the most important thing of all.

Hr realised the ease that Orochimaru had dealt with him was from not using his Jutsu in the traditional fashion of the Shinobi. They had started off weaker than many, including the deadly samurai; Ninja eventually won through with stealth and trickery, not brute force.

Of course, brute force can help, yet must be used wisely, simply throwing up a wall of Chakra in front of an enemy has no subtlety, that strategy is doomed to failure. To survive, and learn from Hinatas death, Naruto would need to become smarter than your average hebi.

His team members noticed the change, the boy became much more focussed on the strategy side of things, ho also was faster in exploitation. If he saw a gap in the defences of either Danzo or Yuu, he would unflinchingly attack, with an increasing array of offensive skills.

His favourite Jutsu was the Tate of course, as well as the Seppeku fist for a combat style, yet he accepted that until they were refined the experience of others would have to be used for serious fighting, in the terms of Jutsu and style.

After the three Genin sparred for a while, Naruto holding his own competently with the two older boys, Ibiki decided on a training 'mission.'

A fairly simple mission, capture the opposing Shinobi without permanently damaging him. Simple yes, easy oh no, because the substitute for an opposing Shinobi happened to be none other than Morino Ibiki.

After a shaky start, the three were soon working together, Naruto playing the supportive role of 'shield caster' while the two other attacked. When his shield was in danger of breaking and Ibiki disabling his team mate, he would Kawarimi with Ibiki, saving the Genin from danger.

Ibiki was impressed with their teamwork, he eventually allowed Naruto to box him in with multiple Tate's, stating that by this point in home territory, reinforcements would have arrived, making the mission a success.

"Listen up boys, the most important aspect of being a Konoha Shinobi is simple – we help and support each other. It is great to have one powerful Shinobi who can take on almost any two opponents, but for a village you need good teamwork. That is why Konoha is the richest, most popular village in all the countries.

Look after your comrades, the Shinobi on a mission are almost always more important than mission failure or success. You can never accept 'I completed the mission, yet my men all died.' Listen and learn well, if you find yourself and your team in an untenable situation _retreat_!

It is not a crime, it will very likely save lives and that is vital for Shinobi, our life expectancy is lower than that of a doctor for plague victims. That is all for today, go and do whatever it is you all do to relax."

After this speech, the Genin did just that. Ibiki watched them leaving the area, the older loudly and boisterously, Naruto quietly, he stealthily disappeared form view as soon as he moved.

Ibiki thought to himself 'hmm, the kid took the death of his friend hard, yet he is progressing well and he does not seem to have any repressed anger, merely determination to not see a friend leave again. At least he will not be focussed on revenge, as I hear that stupid Uchiha is.'

Naruto found a secluded area and used his Chakra no Tate's against each other, pushing as much Chakra into them as he dared to. After that it was smashing various body parts into trees, to see which moves did more damage to the tree and less to him.

His accelerated healing did not allow him to heal from any wound, or regenerate limbs, as his aching left leg-stump and missing ear persistently reminded. Finding the best ways to tackle and fight others without enduring crippling injury was a necessity.

There was also far less risk in trying things on his team, then practising the movement, force and overall speed on unmoving objects. The boy generally trained until the sun was no more, before limping home, aching all over for Ramen and sleep.

This was dual-purpose, the more training he got the stronger he would become, also exhaustion equals less in the way of dreams. The blonde would dream about his best friend leaving this life, the sounds of the dying Hyuga and still darker thoughts and impulses, previously locked somewhere in his body and only now beginning to float to the surface.

-End of chapter, time for a little rant-

The 'American' bit refers to the filler ep of Naruto, 'chubby paradise'. When the fat man speaks English for a few words, it is said by some random person "Wow he can speak _American_.

I believe this is a huge liberty on the behalf of either the translators or the episode maker there. It is the English language; America does not even have its own _dialect_ of English damnit!

Just wanted to point out that little thing that sticks in my mind.

Well there we are people, this is chapter 6 biting the dust, decided to start the 'real' chapters now, with what I believe the true life of a Shinobi entails, death. Dealing with it and meting it out to others, that is. Many fictions I have read have Naruto starting to crack under pressure, or having to deal with majority of pressure, from villager hate.

Do not get me wrong, I know many hate him, but in the Canon there is no huge indicators of high physical abuse, although it is entirely possible, the creator seemed to want to focus more on his mental struggle than physical, with intolerance. I tried to duplicate the spirit of this with this story, let me know how I am doing neh?

I am still undecided on a pairing; it is either Naru/Anko now, or simply a non-pairing fiction. If I am feeling lazy it will likely be a non-pairing, both for originality (I have read few Naruto fics that pass muster with no pairings/romance) and because it is simply easier to write.

Erm, that is around what I wanted to convey at this moment, please ask away if you have a question, comment, constructive criticism, etc, I listen to all replies and messages carefully.

That is all for now, hopefully next chapter will be out inside another week, I have a reasonable amount of time ATM. Good day/night Sir/Mademoiselle (such an odd, old style word that is too) reader.


	7. Chapter 7 So Weary

Hello all, this chapter is likely to be late, apologies, life is becoming most tedious at this time. Also it is a big B-day for my lovely sister's 21st, wish her well please (or ye shall roast in the fires of the afterlife!). Lots of family over, hard to deal with and time-consuming to boot. Hopefully some people enjoy this, seems to be getting progressively harder to write, not easier as one might think.

The blonde boy bounced on the balls of his feet excitedly. This was the day of retribution.

He would finally taste sweet revenge… Diving in for the kill the boy poured boiling water all over his unlucky victim, before grinning widely, grabbing two wooden sticks and saying

"Itadakimasu"

After which, one Uzumaki Naruto proceeded to chow down on his favourite brand of Ramen – home made. He then stopped to wait the two minutes for heating, after being burnt by the scalding water and having to chew raw noodles.

Rubbing his leg-stump absently, Naruto finished the Ramen and grabbed at his artificial leg, which promptly fell over, out of reach. Grumbling sourly the boy flopped to the floor and crawled over to the leg, cramming it back into proper positioning.

Hr got up slowly and sat down on the cheap wooden stool. Lately he had been having strange aching pains, for a few days here and there on and off for the last month since we have last seen him.

The pains originated from his stomach, it felt like a great weight had settled there, it would become worse if the boy was hungry, temporarily abating if he ate, then coming back soon after in full force. It was not there every day, yet was persistent enough to be a real pain in the… well you get the euphemism.

His left leg and ear also ached all the time, despite no longer being attached to his body. Naruto called it 'Phantom Pain' and ignored it as best he could. It was all just the price he paid for being a Shinobi, or so he told himself.

Leaving his dreary apartment, Naruto zipped off over the rooftops to the Hokage tower to meet his team and get a start on the day's mission.

This time it was finally a C-rank mission, simple guard duty yet still more exciting by far than doing shopping and hoeing potatoes.

Naruto positively floated along, looking every which way as the team, numbered 17 left the gates of Kohona behind.

About two days later the team, guarding their client still, who occupied a small caravan heading to moon country, came under bandit attack.

Naruto defended the East Side of the van, while the other Genin were at the West and South. Ibiki took care of the North while playing support for the others.

A big man came at Naruto with a huge poleaxe, swinging and screaming wildly.

Just like the ninja he is, Naruto ducked below the swing, bringing a Kunai up and cutting the pole of the axe in two, before jumping up and kicking his opponent in the face.

Two more bandits wielding swords came from both forward and behind, in a classic pincer movement. Naruto formed his technique for both defence and offence.

"Ninpou: Chakra no Tate Jutsu!"

Two concaved blue shields appeared, one for each man, they slammed into the unfortunate bandits with crippling force, ending their part of the fight.

Dodging a hammer swing from a corpulent man, Naruto used that same movement to spin and double kick the man in his overly large stomach, smashing him down and out of the fight in mere seconds.

Yet another bandit came, this one with twin short-swords. He was by far the most dangerous bandit yet, knowing well how to use those deadly blades. Forcing Naruto on the defensive, with no time for handseals in the intensely fast knife-fight, the bandit sneered.

He was slowly positioning Naruto's blades for a clean kill when the boy utilised an odd tactic. He leapt forwards, jumping up into a spring kick. The man buried both knifes into Naruto's left leg, knowing that the boy's Kunai were out of reach for the moment.

That same leg then popped off its joint! The man had little time to react as Naruto moved into striking distance, just managing to scrape his Kunai across the older man's throat. With that it was all over, the Bandit fell to the ground, gasping limply.

He bled out in another few seconds. Naruto cleaned and sheathed his Kunai in their holster, noting that his team had defeated the rest of the paltry group. Ibiki and the Genin had a short discussion, Ibiki saying grimly

"They were poorly organised and led, even for bandits. They must have been poor folk driven to steal, not hardened criminals.

This should serve to show the local people that they cannot do this to merchant wagons, but just in case be on your guard."

The Genin agreed, including a slightly shaken Naruto, they all went back to their guarding areas. The blonde examined his leg, which had two rather large, jagged holes in it.

The leg would still function, yet it would need some field repair before the others saw it and found out about his injury. Naruto did not know whether or not maimed Shinobi were kept on the active mission roster and had no intention of finding out the hard way.

The rest of the trip was uneventful; no doubt there had been hidden watchers to report the success or failure of the bandits and the condition of the merchant guards. Team 17 saw the guard off on the ship to moon country and headed back to home sweet home.

Around one day to go before they reached mission control, the team encountered a strange sight. One man, his flesh bursting with odd black vines, was fighting another person with a spiral mask that only had one left eye slit.

The person with the vines resembled a sewn-together corpse, as team 17 hid and watched the epic struggle he showed his terrifying power. The hearts of the man's victims were sewn into his flesh, allowing him to utilise their strengths. In particular large elemental attacks.

The masked figure was avoiding the corpse-man's attacks with a fluid speed and grace, using a strange Taijutsu style that flowed – not chopping movements in a straight line, but sinuous movement, not unlike a snake, yet always coiling and moving at an intense speed.

The living corpse became more frustrated, using a huge elemental combination Jutsu from two of his attached abominations.

Fire propelled by gale force winds slammed into the masked figure, who could not entirely avoid the blast. His mask and torso were damaged, revealing a mutilated man who had Half his body crushed and replaced with a variety of metallic objects. His left eye was the cold red of laser operation, while the right side of his face and body was completely encased in irregular metal.

The cripple quickly started spinning, his entire artificial right side allowing for an extremely fast rotation, sucking the latent fire and wind from the previous attack into a forming maelstrom. The man then moved his twister forwards, pulling the corpse figure in with intense suction, it was all team 17 could do to stay hidden themselves, a fair distance away.

Once both men were well into the Jutsu, it multiplied in size before exploding in a huge spray of wind and dust. After it cleared the two mystery Shinobi were still standing opposite each other, both the worse for wear; yet the zombie-man was noticeably worse off.

Both of his living heart-slaves had been destroyed in the explosion, leaving him evidently dangerously weak and vulnerable. The Cyborg was also slumping, his human half showing much damage, while his 'colder parts' still shining with a sinister sheen.

The two seemed to come to an impasse; the Zombie bowed to the Cyborg, before saying softly

"You have earned my respect, thus some time for yourself, you can wander around for one month, meet me here by that time expiry or face the wrath of my organisation. After all, I am the only one who can make you whole again; I know that metallic half-suit can not be comfortable. Think about it… Obito."

The Cyborg considered for a moment, dipped his head and replied with

"Very well, one month it is old man. I shall join Akatsuki then, yet not before, there is still one thing to take care of."

Obito left the scene in a twisting movement, vanishing into fat air. The Zombie chuckled ominously before saying apparently to himself

"Well, that will make eight members for Akatsuki again, we can finally start to move into the practical stage of the plan. Oh and you Konoha Shinobi hiding over there, I am feeling generous, therefore I shall not kill you, your hearts are either young or damaged in any case.

I shall be seeing you four again I take it, if you or any Konoha Shinobi come back here expect to die swiftly."

With that ominous statement, The still unnamed Zombie left the scene in a small cloud of smoke, also utilising 'fat air' to vanish without a trace.

Ibiki signalled for the team to leave, they did so with haste, heading back home. On the way their Sensei told the team that under no circumstances would they ever mention what had transpired that day. It was not to be considered an S-class village secret.

All of the boys agreed, understanding the seriousness of the situation. The two combatants had been fighting on a whole other level than any of them had ever seen. Even the Jounin that Naruto had previously fought was small fry compared to those two freakish men.

Once back in Konoha the next day, Ibiki went off to report, dismissing his Genin team with another stern lecture on keeping their mouth shut, after the three had discussed the fight during the night.

Naruto went to his favourite after-mission cooldown area – Ichiraku's Ramen stand of course. He greeted the stand owner and his daughter Ayame, who had been working there for some little time now. Naruto liked those two people; they were perhaps the only civilians he knew who treated him civilly.

The boy ate four bowls of pork and miso Ramen, attempting with some success to drown out his worries and experiences with the delicious food (the staple meal, if you ask him).

He paid, thanked and farewelled the Ramen stand owner and his daughter, walking contentedly off to his apartment. Over the course of the last week, Naruto had been house searching, he had come to the conclusion that he would have to stick out the hell-hole he was currently living in until reaching Chunin level.

At that time he would be doing enough C and hopefully B-rank missions to afford the rent on a larger place, in a brighter and more convenient area.

The next day found Naruto utilising his day off with the usual vigour. It was a day off for all Shinobi, there being large meetings of elders, Jounin and Chunin throughout the day, so Naruto could train with his favourite partner/sensei for the morning. Favourite might have been pushing it a little though.

The blonde ducked under a wild, vicious Kunai swing and executed a spring kick to Anko-sensei's Stomach, while being backhanded by the fist holding the original Kunai.

The combatants skidded away from the other, both forming handseals for the maximum effect and crying out their respective Jutsu "Chakra no Tate" and "Sen'enjashu!"

The six snakes collided with a front on shield, smashing it and halting one snake. Anko smirked while the snakes sped on, thinking that her student had miscalculated as usual with power and was about to be in a whole lot of pain.

It was then that two more shields came in from either side, smashing the snakes together and destroying three more, the remaining two hit several strategically placed shields when they attempted to move on to their target.

It ended with Naruto slamming one last backup shield down upon Anko, who could only partially dodge it, having one side hit by the massive wave of Chakra. She took a tumble down to the ground and lay unmoving.

Naruto looked elated for a moment, then worried. He called out "Hebi-sensei!" and ran over to Anko, rolling her over to see… one fist spiralling towards his face.

There was a cracking sound, then a thump. Naruto got up off the ground and looked over towards his sensei. The rather large rock he had replaced with was now lying atop Anko, who looked to be silently screaming with rage and pain.

The boy used a Bunshin with the 'Kitsune Kai' technique to create three clones, which proceeded to heave the rock off his temperamental sensei who, as predicted, destroyed the flickering Naruto copies.

A dishevelled, bruised and bleeding Anko got up and sat down near Naruto, who was sure to stay out of grabbing or stabbing distance. She wearily looked over at the boy and spoke

"Not bad Gaki, your tactics are finally up to par, that Kawarimi was very sneaky, not to mention the semi solid clones are getting better, they still flicker unconvincingly but they can move and interact with solid objects.

You do know that I am going to kill you though right?"

With Naruto's glum nod she continued

"Good then, I think that is enough training for this morning, give me a hand back to the tower in the forest, I need a drink and a shower."

The now smiling boy stood up and grabbed Anko's arm gently – a large mistake as he was then in turn grabbed not so gently and catapulted into the nearest tree.

"Never let your guard down Gaki, I will see you here the day after tomorrow, Ja Ne!"

With what she leapt off into the trees, pride restored. Naruto climbed out of his shaped crater in the tree grumbling to himself, before taking off to the nearest weapons store.

His stock of Kunai was beginning to get low and his pay for the C-rank mission would allow for some serious spending.

The only problem was in finding a weapon store that would allow his presence, there was only one that usually would and it was closed for the day, the owner busy with Jounin meetings.

Or so Naruto thought. Energetically running past the store, he noticed light on inside. The blonde comically skidded to a stop, barely missing a group of young women as he did.

Yelling out "Sorry ladies" and receiving his share of filthy and curious looks alike, the blonde retraced his steps back to the store and went inside. A bell jingled lightly to announce his presence.

A woman popped out of fat air, borrowing the fat oft the air it seemed, as she was quite plump. She asked politely

"Can I help you sir?"

Mildly surprised that anyone would bother to be courteous to 'the demon' Naruto opted for a mirroring politeness.

"Yes, please I am looking for one Dozen Kunai and three loose Shuriken, also I would like to look at the prices of various items, just a general browse for useful stuff really."

The now smiling woman (after all, everyone likes making money) led Naruto to the appropriate section for thrown and basic weapons, after selecting some cheap and well made products Naruto had a squiz around the shop.

He ended up buying a set of Shin-guards alike to Anko's, so he would not as easily get holes knocked in his fake leg, exposing a crippling injury to his fellow Shinobi.

He also purchased one small claw system; custom fitted to his arm, with the ability to adjust as he aged and grew. The system was relatively simple, one could extent three slim claw-like blades from a contraption hidden up the right coat sleeve, using them for extended range and surprise attacks in melee combat.

After his transaction and a bright farewell from the plump store clerk Naruto went to a surprise location – that is right, Ichiraku's Ramen stand.

The boy could most definitely eat. This happened to be uppermost on the mind of the owner, as his daughter watched Naruto slurping the Ramen fondly. The two had met Naruto long ago, defended him against two drunken men who had hassled him for eating in the Ramen stand, saying that 'demons cannot eat in restaurants.'

The owner had kicked the two out on their asses. He had thereafter been slightly apprehensive about potential customers, but Naruto had come back and always ate plenty, customers seeing five bowls stacked up next to the blonde daily made for a great advertisement.

It more than made up for the narrow minded people who avoided the 'demon's stand.' Naruto finished his sixth bowl hurriedly, almost feverishly as if trying to keep his mind off something.

Ayame asked Naruto "Ano sa, are you ok Naruto? You look worried."

The blonde looked at Ayame for a moment, Ramen noodles dangling comically from his mouth, before swallowing and saying

Yeah Ayame-chan, we had our first C-rank mission the other day. There were bandits… I killed one of them. I always knew it was required, but was hoping to delay killing others somehow.

They all call me a monster… will killing others make me into one?"

The boy looked at Ayame with such a hurt, confused expression that she found tears leaking from her own eyes.

"Naruto, you are not a monster!

Never let those pig-headed villagers tell you any different, most Shinobi are ok with you, they understand that you are just doing your job. Like you said all Shinobi have to kill sooner or later, the monsters are those who find themselves enjoying it.

Keep hating it and avoiding it where possible, only doing your duty to save others or yourself and you will be fine."

Naruto looked decidedly better after this encouragement, especially after the owner nodded and grunted emphatically.

"Thanks Old man, Ayame-chan, there… is not really anyone else to talk to about this sort of stuff."

They then reminded Naruto of a certain insane Kunoichi who did not seem to mind spending time with the boy, that she would probably welcome serious discussion about the Shinobi life.

Naruto left the stand truly happy, with no fake or blank expression, a rare occurrence.

He decided to find Anko and see if she would train some more, the boy did after all have an almost unlimited stamina supply, an afternoon off made him a little hyper these days.

The blonde searched high and low for the ever-elusive hebi-sensei, yet she was nowhere to be found. Her home, favourite bar, training areas all empty of the sadist.

Naruto was about to give up, walking randomly along the village when he saw something that sparked his interest. A sign for a fighting Dojo, where one could challenge the place was on the wall opposite the boy.

He eagerly ran over to the sign, following the directions until he came upon the Dojo. Upon entering and explaining to the tall man at the entrance that he wanted sparring practise with new people for once the man explained.

"You will be paired with our best, as this is only for challengers to the Dojo at the moment, Ninjas are advised that it is Taijutsu only, is this acceptable?"

Naruto nodded, he was subsequently brought to the inner room, a large high walled area that looked good for sparring. A man in green was currently instructing others with his back to Naruto and his tall guide.

"Dojo master, we have a new challenger for you (whisper whisper) Uzumaki Naruto wishes to challenge the Dojo."

The green-clad man turned around, to reveal a large fuzzy pair of eyebrows and an enthusiastic smile

"Ah, the flames of youth must burn brightly in you, I am Maito Sai, Konoha's most prestigious Dojo master, are you ready to duel until the inevitable knockout?"

Agreeing, Naruto readied himself for an epic struggle, removing his new hand-claw and various stabbing and throwing implements. Sai merely stretched as both fighters moved forwards and bowed to the other.

Naruto said "Good luck, Fuzzy brows." Sai merely laughed, before attacking quickly with a haymaker.

Naruto merely stood there and took the hit, both of his arms grabbed the offending fist, flipping the big man over his shoulder and kicking upwards Naruto managed to completely surprise his opponent.

Sai stood up, he could tell there would be a hell of a bruise on his stomach in the morning.

Well, Naruto, I must admit I did not take you, a child seriously, for that I apologise. Time for the real battle to begin."

The two then engaged in a series of quick punches and kicks, Naruto mainly on the defensive due to the larger man's reach in both the arm and leg.

Sai followed up a blocked punch with a straight kick, Naruto jumped upwards in response, grabbing the offending leg with both of his own, as he viciously chopped Sai's leg with both open palms.

He then kicked Sai in the head, as he did a large fist slammed into his stomach, courtesy of Sai, both combatants were beaten backwards.

Naruto was having fun with a strong new opponent, no Kunai or Jutsu, just plain and in its own way elegant Taijutsu. That last hit on his stomach had reawakened his old pains with a vengeance though – he had best finish the fight before it got worse.

Naruto charged in, fists pumping wildly. Sai thought the boy had lost his had and opted for another haymaker, so Naruto repeated his previous manoeuvre, grabbing the arm after it's attached fist hit his face hard, throwing Sai over his shoulder.

The boy then attacked while his opponent was off balance, due to falling face first onto the ground. He landed several solid blows and a nice kick to the solar plexus, though by that time Sai had stood he Naruto had to jump to reach it.

Sai held up a hand and wheezingly said "Enough Naruto, you win."

Sai had underestimated Naruto all the way through, this was the price he paid as the man sat down, bruised and sore yet smiling widely. Naruto was in a similar condition and disposition.

Sai gave Naruto the master key to the complex as his prize.

"You are a member of this fighting Dojo now Uzumaki Naruto, this key will afford you entry at any time to both our Dojo and the other that we defeated in Iwa.

Fight well and bring prestige to this complex Naruto. Your flames of youth will definitely help you in your Shinobi life so remember them at all times!

Who knows, you might even equal our best, Maito Gai one-day. Good luck Naruto."

With that the boy and man parted ways, Naruto going back to the Ramen stand saying "one for the road" before bed, Sai back to his home as the Dojo closed for the night.

Naruto ate his Ramen, farewelled the owner and his daughter Ayame, then went to his cold dreary apartment for the night.

His stomach hurt like hell that day, when he awoke in the night to use the lavatory he never noticed the dark rings under his eyes, usually a sign of a drunk or Insomniac.

The blonde had to take the day off missions, his team could handle the D-rank's with only three no problem. His stomach was horrible all day, the boy actually ate nothing throughout the day, staying in the apartment and being sick replaced his usual routine.

The night was slightly less of a torture; the boy actually managed a few hours of sleep before being rudely awakened, only to rush to the lavatory, lest bad things happen…

Yet another day dawned, this time Naruto felt fine, as if he had been holidaying for weeks. The boy signed himself in at the Hokage tower then waited for the rest of team 17 to get there.

This day it was two more D-rank missions, occupying time, if not actual skill. While maintaining a large organic garden, the boys found some rather odd plants, which Ibiki warned them not to touch or eat.

One of the two elder Genin, Yuu disobeyed these strict instructions, as kids are inclined to do, he spent the next half an hour seeing very bright colours indeed. Eventually Ibiki found the laughing Genin and spaced out Yuu, he found and administered an antidote.

With a promise of punishment for the whole team for not stopping Yuu, they got back to work with many an interested look at the plants, which tags read 'Marijuana – hazardous!'

The next mission was not dissimilar in skill or time to complete; they were cleaning out a suburb's roofs/gutters of leaves and the like. Funnily enough, the village hidden in the leaves did get a hell of a lot of leaf-litter.

Finally finishing in the early afternoon, the boys said goodbye to Ibiki, except for Yuu who was serving extra punishment both that afternoon and the next day. The other boys Naruto and Danzo only had to endure the next day's punishment, whatever that may be.

Danzo went to his home, he had told the others how strict and unyielding his father was on keeping a good schedule, meaning no fun whatsoever. Apparently Danzo senior was on the village council and headed a branch division of the ANBU, titled ROOT. Their purpose was unknown to Danzo junior and indeed most citizens of Konoha.

Naruto went for a surprising afternoon snack – you guessed it, Ichiraku's Ramen stand.

After the usual eating spree at the stand, this time with unofficial competition in the way of one Akimitchi Choji Naruto headed to training area 44.

He managed to find an unexpecting Kunoichi training there alone, all ready for an ambush.

Her clothes were similar to his own, Trenchcoat with fishnet underclothing, a coincidence he was always quick to point out when Anko started on his 'fan clothes.'

Naruto decided the time was ripe, he set off a rather large explosive tag above them, shocking the Kuonichi into looking upwards. This allowed Naruto's solid Bunshins to attack from the earth, slithering alone like snakes.

Anko detected the attack and used thrown Kunai and Shurkien to destroy around five of the clones; this is the point where Naruto crashed in from above, tackling the woman to the ground.

They rolled around, a comical dust cloud forming as fists and legs flailed, both combatants trying to knock the other out of the fight.

It ended with Anko pinning Naruto and beating him until she was satisfied that he learnt his lesson – never ambush a larger opponent unless you are sure to cripple them.

The two then talked for a time about general strategy, before starting off some serious sparring, their previous scuffle only being a warm-up of sorts.

Naruto went home, deciding for once to avoid the crowd and travel in the alleyways. He did not have the energy or concentration required for rooftop travelling.

The boy reached his home with little incident, noting the poor folk hidden deep in the allies as he went. They avoided most people, yet Naruto avoided them as well, most were angry and bitter at the Kyuubi for making them poor and homeless.

They would take out their aggression on Naruto if they ever saw him. Indeed, the boy recalled an incident not to long ago where he had been attacked by a lazy looking man in a dark place.

Naruto did his usual nightly activities, before collapsing on his bed, it had been a long day and the next would likely be taxing as well.

Morning. Another day, another mission. Naruto got up and went through the motions of actually waking, he opted for a mushroom and chicken Ramen, just to be different.

The mission for the day was said to be quite exciting for Genin, it was with slight curiosity that Naruto met up with the rest of team 17 and walked into the Kage tower for their assignment.

Naruto greeted the Hokage with the usual "Ojii-ji" for which he received a hard blow from Ibiki and a stern "Quiet gaki". The bear-like man was afraid that the third would take offence, as he usually was. Sandiame himself merely chuckled and briefed the team on their mission.

It was a C-rank mission, a Chunin from the hidden mist had gone missing completing a courier mission near Konoha, and they were to check the area and discover the location of the missing Chunin.

Kiragure could not afford to send their own team due to a crisis in their country, a rebellion was being stirred up and their Shinobi were putting it down. It was taking them a while, as the dissenters' leader was a Shinobi as well, no doubt the battles were equally fierce and wasteful.

The country being as large as it was, decided to take a relatively small loss of hiring some Konoha-nins (enter team 17!) to find their lost Shinobi and bring him back to the enfolding arms of the mist.

Manpower was needed for the mist above all at this time, they had even hired some Konoha-nin for the war, special Jounin for the most part. That aside, Ibiki gladly accepted the mission, a C-rank without bandit killing involved, saving a stranded and likely clumsy Chunin instead would be a great change for his strong, yet still young and impressionable Genin team.

Team 17 set out, Naruto loudly exclaiming over inconsequential details, such as the guards having 'weird face bandages' and the trees looking bigger and greener than ever. Ibiki reflected on Naruto's useful mindless banter, it took the other two Genins minds off their last mission, a slaughter of poor would-be-bandits if there ever was one.

The team made good headway, flitting from tree to tree silent as ghosts, if not as ethereal.

After three hours, they reached the last known point of contact for the missing Chunin, Dan by name. Dan had turned in the required letters to the drop off point, after which he had headed off. It was at this point, presumably on the way home that the Mist-nin vanished into fat air… for our intrepid team 17 to locate.

They found the Chunin a mere hour down the road to the mist… or at least part of him. Dan seemed fine at first glance, he told the party after they explained their purpose that he had become lost in the nearby forest while searching for food. He only found his way back to the road the previous day, which he spent recovering and eating some of the rabbit he caught while MIA (missing in action).

As they set out, back on the road to the mist border, the team found Dan's actions to be a little… odd. The squat man would crouch and sniff the ground every so often, his teeth showing as he bared two rather long and sharp incisors.

He would then spring up and charge ahead, leaving all but Naruto behind in a burst of irrepressible energy. The others would soon catch up to the now sedately walking figure, only to have the cycle repeat itself at every road junction and turn-off.

They decided to travel throughout the night, the Mist-nin wanting to help out his warring nation as quickly as possible. Team 17 had no objections, their pay increased the quicker they completed the mission.

They reached the border at midnight, as the moon broke through scant cloud cover, its full, scarred visage shining with reflected light upon the five males. Dan crouched again, this time his incisors lengthened to improbable lengths, and he crouched down and attacked the Genin closest to him – Yuu.

Dan jumped Yuu with an eerie and loud howl, savaging the stunned young boy while the others moved in 'for the kill.' Naruto jumped right into the fray, being immediately batted away from a single limb of the powerfully changed Dan.

Ibiki struck the legs, toppling Dan yet receiving a powerful blow to the throat, felling the bear-like Jounin as Danzo moved in and cast a moderately powerful Suiton Jutsu that the now enraged beast called Dan endured then merely shrugged off.

Naruto crash-tackled Dan as he moved for a shocked Danzo, his Jutsu was designed to weigh the miscreant down with heavy articles of water infused with Chakra, for Dan to still move meant his new personality was truly empowering.

Eventually, with much swearing and blooded noses and other body parts, the trio dog-piled Dan, squashing the fight more or less out of him with their bodies and many unmoveable but still solid Bunshins, courtesy of a "Ninpou: Kitsune Release" from one Uzumaki Naruto.

The other two Genin and a surprised Ibiki thus fought off and very physically restrained the mindless, snarling Dan before tending to Yuu. He had two rather serious puncture marks on the neck, as a result of a severe bite by Dan, along with other scratch and claw marks over his chest and face.

Ibiki immobilised the still snarling Mist-nin with a few well-placed pressure point taps infused with Chakra and they carted him deep into the mist nation. Eventually finding a wartime MSSH unit (Mobile Shinobi Surgical Hospital) they told the guarding Shinobi of Dan's condition, got two stiches for Yuu's neck injury and headed home.

Ibiki hurried them a good distance from the Mist's border, not wanting to be caught in a large battle inside the civil war-torn nation. Eventually they made camp in a freshly harvested field, plenty of open space around to prevent an ambush.

The party was not worried by any outside interference, like a large, angry army. Yuu did not get much sleep though, he complained of itching pain in the neck and general ill feeling.

Indeed in the morning it looked as though the unlucky Genin had a high fever, Ibiki and the other Konoha-nin took turns carrying him piggy-back style back to Konoha, none of them wanting to go anywhere near the Mist again. They had passed one river there, literally changed the red of blood by the shifting tide of the front line.

Team 17 made it back to Konohagure with the setting sun, stopping off at the hospital to check Yuu in, who was by this time delirious with alternating chills and burning heat. After reporting to the Kage tower for the debriefing and being dismissed Team 17, minus one went their separate ways.

Ibiki told them he would check on Yuu, they were to assemble the next day as usual. The bear-like man would then inform his subordinates of the boy's status and the subsequent effect on their team – if they would need a temporary replacement that is.

Naruto said his goodbyes and raced off to his near only haunt – Ichiraku's Ramen stand of course.

Eating his way through yet another large number of bowls, Naruto noted a cloaked man seated down from him, barely touching his noodles. The man was wearing a mask not dissimilar from an ANBU's, only its eyeholes had mirrored lenses in them, to prevent any from peering inside.

The masked man paid fro his Ramen and asked if anyone at the stand knew where a one eyed Shinobi lived. Naruto thought back and remembered a man similar to his 'Whitey', the ANBU who had been assigned to protect Hinata.

The blonde turned to the masked man and asked oft him

"Who is asking buddy? After all you could be a spy or assassin after Ka- I mean this one eyed man."

The masked man chuckled, a raw unused sound before stating with slightly more warmth

"So you know Kakashi, I am an old friend of his, I was wounded quite badly some time ago and have only just recovered enough to travel, I wanted to see my friend. Could you please tell me where he lives? An old cripple like me is no threat to a Konoha Shinobi after all."

Naruto immediately discounted that theory, he considered himself an unpredictable threat to any opposing Shinobi, and one could not call him anything but a cripple.

"Well… I will take you to meet him but if you try anything funny I will set off a reconnaissance Jutsu set up here to catch criminals, so be warned!"

Naruto watched the masked man, unable to see if his bluff was intimidating.

"Very well, lead on, by the way my name is Madara, Uchiha Madara."

Naruto replied with his own given name, though he never knew who had named him so, both males ignored the slight gasps from the Ramen stand owner and his daughter at the exclamation of another living Uchiha.

They set off for Kakashi's house, which Naruto remembered from doing the man's shopping as a boring D-rank mission some little time ago.

He knocked on the door, yelling out rather loudly

"Hey, Whitey-look alike, there is a man who claims to be your friend out here to meet you… Come on, I don't have all day you know."

After a minute the frowning gaze of Hatake Kakashi graced the view of the impatient boy and Stoic, mysterious figure behind him.

"Hello Naruto, what a… loud surprise, I am afraid I do not recognise you sir, your name?"

Naruto quickly burst out "He said it was uh… Uchiha Madara"

Th masked man then pushed back his cloak and took off his mask revealing a mechanised half face and robotic eye that Naruto recognised, as he unthinkingly blurted out

"Obito!"

The not unmasked man smiled, a mere twitch of the lips, as he said calmly

"Sorry for the deception Kakashi, it is definitely harder to move about when one is a dead man. Can we go inside? I dislike showing my face in public."

Kakashi nodded dumbly and the two visitors came inside, Naruto mostly to satisfy his curiosity with the metallically modified man. After all, he had been fighting that weird guy who talked about 'Akatsuki' with a whole new level in power, from what the boy remembered.

After they all sat down, with Whitey himself already there saying hello to Naruto a tad sadly Obito felt three pairs of eyes trained on his own robotic lens.

"Well, I guess it is time to explain myself, like how I am still alive and here after all this time. First a little background is in order:

Roughly eleven years ago, Hatake Kakashi was promoted to Jounin, while still only around thirteen years of age ('I was eleven Obito!' 'Yeah yeah'). His Chunin team members, Rin and myself, with our then former Jounin Instructor, the Fourth Hokage himself, were on a mission.

It was the time of the Third great Shinobi war, Iwa and Konoha were fighting fiercely and Iwa had their sights set on Grass Country. It borders Konoha, so we had to stop them from taking it over, as we would be deep in the shit at that time.

Konoha's strength was at an all time low, due to the warring, so our team split, the Fourth, then the legendary 'Yellow Flash' and us three forming separate teams. The Yellow Flash would attack the front lines to divert attention, while Kakashi led Rin and myself in a sabotage mission, to take out a bridge critical on the supply line.

Kakashi and me, we never really got along, alike to water and oil we were. However, we grew up and set aside our feelings when the enemy captured Rin. Fighting to save her, we succeeded too even though Kakashi lost an eye in the process, then one of the Iwa-nins brought down the roof on us.

Long story short, I got crushed and asked Rin to use medical Jutsu to take the healthy eye out of my dying head and implant it in Kakashi's own. They got out of there, I did not. I heard later that Kakashi made a famous name for himself: Sharingan Kakashi, I am glad for you my old friend.

While lying there, dying, alone with the pain and rocks I heard an odd sound. Almost like a chirping sound it was, I remembered a forbidden Jutsu that I learned from watching my Otou-san train, taking the latent energy from one's surroundings to quarantine areas of the body.

This stops all bleeding and whatnot in those areas, it is forbidden because of the ease with which one can accidentally quarantine ones own heart. That would not be a pretty experience

Also once the area is cut off with the Jutsu, it takes years of dedicated time and study to learn how to reconnect it, the patient has to do this himself too, making it useless for modern medical Jutsu.

Not having much to lose I used the half remembered Jutsu, it disintegrated the solid rock around me over the course of a few hours and stopped the bleeding, I managed to also fumble out a blood replacing pill, as well as a soldier pill for energy.

Using a Kunai to cut off the useless side of my body, it looked like I actually had a chance of surviving, if I could outlast the ending war.

I had to hole up in that cave, living as I could while the fighting died down. It took me two months to get out of Iwa all told, since then I have been looking for ways to replace or regrow my damaged body.

As you can see, partial success has been met, with the robotic body. It functions, yet flesh is literally where the heart lies, I will not rest until I have that flesh again.

Thus we come to the reason of my visit. There is a way to trade in the Ugly cybernetic parts of this body, it involves a very distasteful man and an organisation called 'Akatsuki'.

Now this organisation is made up of currently around seven S-class missing-nins, they mean no good to any country, I am sure of that. In one month, I shall infiltrate the organisation, hopefully learning its goals.

The reward, as of such for joining is simple – a man who can sew up and connect to his body the hearts of dead Shinobi's will use a suitable corpse to give me a brand new, meaty right side. Not perfect but it will be much better than the mechanical monstrosity that looks out at you all now. Also it will net me two eyes, normal ones but I will take them for now, and gladly.

While there I hope to kill one Uchiha Itachi, he killed off my clan and will not live any longer if I have any say in the matter. If successful his body will be accompanying me back to Konoha, where I hope to see one Sennin, specifically Tsunade here to take out Itachi's eyes and give them to me.

If all goes well, I will gain valuable intelligence on an obviously hostile group, while whittling down their numbers, a new body and Sharingan eyes, Konoha will get me back, hale and strong. Also all of the intelligence that I have picked up on other villages and people for the past ten years or so will be Konoha's.

My plan is detailed here, I ask for the leaf to locate Tsunade before the end of this coming month, with probably two weeks leeway for me to get into Akatsuki and out.

I have also heard some rather unfortunate rumours that the Jinnchuriki are the reason for Akatsuki's existence – specifically catching and extracting their demons, killing the hosts in the process. I shall verify these rumours in this time, and as Konoha plays host to the most powerful demon of all, it is imperative that we do not let its container fall into their twisted hands.

Incidentally Uzumaki Naruto, you should know that the reason you heard all of this and likely the reason you find Jutsu hard to perform, is that you are the container for the Kyuubi no Kitsune, the most powerful demon in existence."

There was then silence in the Hatake residence. Two people had just had their worlds turned upside down, one had been reunited with a still living friend, and the other had discovered the reason for his lonely existence and the source of his Jutsu troubles.

It was too much for our hero; he fell backwards off the chair, having fainted. Kakashi looked as if he wished that were an option.

-End of chapter. What will Konoha's response to the daring plan be?

Will Naruto be able to cope with this ominous news?

Find out in the next exciting chapter of Uzumaki Naruto: Pressure.

Authors notes: I have likely bungled a year here or there on dates, for example I think Orochimaru should still be with Akatsuki at this time, for the sake of relative simplicity I am modifying the storyline to suit and say that he has already left.

Also I utilise certain characters from the Naruto Manga who have not yet aired on the Anime, if you do not read the mange they will probably look like OC characters, be patient or read the Manga is all I can say.

Good day/night wonderful or vindictive people of the world. Enjoy your computer browsing experience on fanfiction website number1 please.


	8. Chapter 8 Political Unrest

Authors note: This chapter contains violence, gore, suggestive theme, unethical and insensitive jokes and as of such is not recommenced for any form of viewing by anyone. That said, enjoy!

A new dawns on the sizeable village hidden in the leaves. The morning sun passes through to the beating rays of midday with the usual hustle and bustle in the streets, though perhaps a little more so than usual.

Many of the people also push and shove with an almost desperate demeanour, which is highly unusual for Konohagakagure, a village that has not known high unemployment rates or famine since the Kyuubi incident, and the prior wars.

The unforgiving light glinted off many reflective objects, buildings, banners and the like, near blinding a certain blonde boy who was winding his way through the crowded streets.

The young Shinobi was slowly meandering towards the Kage tower; his pace due to the news received the previous day. Teuchi, the owner of Ichiraku's Ramen stand, was dead.

Murdered by a spying Kumo-nin for discovering his true identity, Teuchi's funeral had been that very morning and Naruto missed it due to a simple and tedious mission.

The boy had found the Ramen stand to be just about the only public place where he could sit in peace, with two of the only people who had never hated him, even as a little child they had always been friendly and helpful to the Jinnchuriki.

Now he was gone, Naruto did not know what to think. First his friend Hinata leaving this plane and now old man Teuchi… it was getting to be a strain on his still young, impressionable mind.

The mission was a simple - D-rank garden hoeing, which was a good thing as Naruto butchered many plants as well as the weeds assigned for execution, earning a beating from the irate gardener. Gods be praised that he did not have to collect eggs from her chicken coop, a delicate process of not antagonising the chickens while removing their 'children.'

He moved through the entire morning sluggishly, without any real thought or direction from the cranium. His team noticed and, after a short conference from Ibiki, they cut him some slack, it was obvious the boy was not currently firing on all cylinders.

The entire village community was finding themselves with more to think morosely about, injury and death was on an incline, hostile Shinobi sneaking about all manner of places.

Bandit attacks were on the rise as well; Shinobi culling off the older bands did little to deter hungry farmers and poor folk from resorting to thievery. The Daimo (Warlord) of Fire country was a cruel man, in power only for the past six months after his predecessor died from 'off meat.'

The man was very greedy as well, squeezing the country folk for all they were worth, also raising a private army in the capital, apparently to 'guard against numerous outside threats.' In reality it was more alike to the Daimo not trusting the Konoha Shinobi, wanting a measure of security in case some (or many) revolted.

Though Konoha was still busy and bustling with missions and therefore strong in economy, the populace still felt the pinch of poverty on their behinds. Food was becoming increasingly scarce and expensive, hence the increase in farming around Konoha and D-rank missions based around that same pastime.

People were safer the closer to the village they were, so it was slowly starting to fill with those who had 'cut their losses' and ran with what they had from the country and other smaller villages into Konoha's increasingly overfilled arms.

Apparently this made Konoha potentially vulnerable for an invasion, hence the spying Kumo-nin. Although the Shinobi had been captured and incarcerated Naruto was nowhere near at ease.

The boy understood enough of the Shinobi life by now that vengeance solves little; it cannot bring back the dead. He was merely sorry to see one of his few true friends leave so suddenly, and at a loss oft how to outwardly express that particular feeling.

Naruto entered the tower after as long lingering outside as possible, he went to the Hokage's office and was summarily let in by the old man, who had been waiting outside, smoking his insidious pipe of doom… Ahem on with it eh?

As the Hokage, Sasuke Sarutobi sat down as his seat he stated calmly, a little too calmly in fact:

"Well Naruto, you have been doing well in your missions lately, your current feelings are perfectly natural though, it is best just to talk about them, rather than bottling them up and slaughtering some poor farmer's crops."

Naruto shifted guiltily, he sat after being waved into a seat by the old man.

"I… can't pretend that it does not hurt Oji-ji, it would be… an insult to a good man."

Sandiame nodded compassionately and Naruto continued.

"It is just so hard to see them go, knowing that there was no way to save them from… life. I understand that death is not the end, just a part of existence that we all meet one day.

This does not make it any easier to deal with though… hey Oji-ji, you are old, how do you cope with it?"

With a slightly unhappy tug of his kage hat, Sandiame puffed once on his pipe and spilled his guts.

"It is simple Naruto. I merely say goodbye and that I shall see them all again soon. It is not like we are severed from each other for eternity after all, we all die, therefore we all should go to the same place.

Teuchi lived long and well, raising a lovely daughter and insuring his family had a continued income for the future, his life was not over, but it had purpose. Many live and die without finding their purpose, I only truly grieve for those."

Naruto nodded at that, he looked slightly better from hearing a long-winded, yet truthful philosophy of death.

The blonde boy slept better that night, in the morning there was a report of bandit attacks along the highway road stretching all the way to Sunagakure.

Not too far from Konoha was the main band of trouble, hundreds of the hungry had resorted to pillaging those who were more fortunate. This process would in turn create more and more bandits and homeless folk.

Therefore the Daimo of the fire country gave the village of Konoha one-month to suppress the miniature rebellion, 28 days and counting. He was secretly hoping to whittle down the numbers of both fractious civilians and Shinobi in one fell stroke.

Naturally the Shinobi took the task seriously, mobilising all of their active Shinobi for the operation, dubbed 'Op: Sheepdog' by a former farmer in the creative department.

All Genin teams would encircle and herd the bandits towards a central area around three kilometres off the highway, a rugged place where they could be more easily split up.

From there the rest of the Shinobi would operate in 6-8 man cells, disarming or destroying all threats. It was the largest military mobilisation outside war in the history of Konoha.

Team 17 set out on Monday morning, Naruto grumbling, he could not go on the secret operation to find Princess Tsunade the Slug-Sennin to fulfil Obito's deal unless they finished inside two weeks.

The two weeks was for another team to locate and reacquire the other Sennin, Jiriyia, who would probably be the only one to find Tsunade, they being former partners in a Genin and later Sannin level team.

The boy also still felt for his two precious people, Hinata was his best and true friend, while Teuchi was like the proverbial missing uncle or literal in this case (missing I mean...)

Naruto set aside his brooding and decided to focus on his job, something many adults apparently do in cities to ignore domestic problems.

It took two long, wearying days to reach the troubled farmland where our little scuffle is to take place.

Team 17, along with eight other teams was taking the approach from the south, the crops hid their approach, and there were only a few scouts that the Jonin took out without even bothering the younger, relatively experienced Genin.

A military organisation the bandits were certainly not. What they did have was numbers and a few experienced fighters in the mob.

The sound of battle joining could be heard as Naruto, Danzo and Yuu crouched in the cane field. Not particularly pleasant sounds, the clash of steel on steel and the hollow sound of edged objects on armour.

As they approached squelching sounds added their lovely presence to the scene, as Shinobi blade met bandit flesh, the opposite was hopefully limited yet still likely evident.

Teams 17, 24, 31 and others burst out of the cane into a melee, the Shinobi had been harassing the flanks to bunch the Bandits in small groups of thirty or so, milling about and outflanked on all sides.

Unfortunately for that plan hidden traps in the ground had flooded the outlying area with more bandits still, turning the entire farming district into a huge melee.

Shinobi were using all the Nin, Gen and Taijutsu at their disposal to take down the mob, yet more than a few were totally swamped by numbers and the poorly thrown yet numerous projectiles.

One Genin in team 24 was too slow to avoid a flurry of Kunai, scavenged from the dead; her death rattle after one pierced her throat was lost in the chaos to all but Naruto, who flinched then carried on.

Jonin techniques cleared out entire sections of banditry, yet there were truly thousands and when some were cleared; they merely spread out or flooded the area over again.

Shinobi were slowly falling, one after the other, so they grouped together over the course of another fierce ten minutes of combat and started to fall back.

Carrying Yuu, Naruto hauled ass back, depositing the dead-pale boy at the MSSH (Mobile Shinobi Surgical Hospital) division and heading back to the line. Yuu had been fighting well when wolfish limbs sprouted where his arms and legs should have been.

A random bandit had stabbed the nearly helpless boy/wolf before the Shinobi could get to him, though Naruto did drag him to relative safety.

They could not just retreat, their supply line and medical ninja would be wiped out, so the Shinobi of Kohona retreated backwards one step at a time, saving all the wounded that could be saved.

Naruto reached the line once more; screaming bandits overtaking the left flank met his large Chakra no Tate. Naruto used a simple method, one Tate in front to push them onto another just on the ground, solidify that horizontal one, raise and drop.

After a while Naruto almost ceased to hear the screams and the squelching thud as the groups of luckless bandits fell fifty feet onto the unforgiving ground. The boy even dropped them onto their comrades as the opportunity presented itself, crushing and wounding still more.

Even the Jonin were tiring now, the defensive line was thinning and slowly creeping in towards itself, the bandits were close to flanking their tricky opponents.

One and a half hours in to the operation, an hour into their grinding retreat Naruto had a thought. It sparked in his head like the proverbial light bulb and refused to be quashed.

The blonde found Ibiki and quickly explained: "You and I could hold them at bay sensei, with an encircling Tate around us only letting in slow moving objects, like people, we could attack their centre and they would stall, giving the others time to get away."

Ibiki nodded, threw three kunai from a diminishing stock and said calmly

"We do need a distraction Naruto, but suicide is pointless unless you can hold the shield for ten minutes."

Naruto, fighting off his own burly, yet desperate opponents replied loudly and shrilly

"Damnit Sensei, I will hold the Tate for as long as is needed. You guard us and use a Doton, decapitating Jutsu to hide us, the others will go free and we can hide until the bandits leave or we die."

It did not take Ibiki long; he nodded tersely and hid a grin under his blood-drenched coat. 'This will be interesting', were his thoughts at the time.

"Alright men, Uzumaki and I shall fight a rearguard action, we will delay them so haul ass when they stall. Do not come back for us."

One battered Genin shouted out "But if this fails…"

"It shall not". Ibiki had his 'grim' face on, usually reserved for torture, now for a dance with death itself.

The two Shinobi took off into the mob, bandits flying as they crashed into a plow-like Tate, not stopping until they reached the dead centre.

Arms and legs flashed around the Tate's, which were circling, with solid edges and gluelike consistency in the centre, many bandits pressed in only to be smashed away, even suffering amputated limbs in the crush.

The entire bandit line crushed into its own centre, aided by a timely Genjutsu by Yuuhi Kureani, a senior Chunin. The Shinobi line disengaged and exercised a limping tactical repositioning (They hauled ass out of there)!

Naruto and Ibiki fought on, using any weapon that came to hand to slash and smash, annihilating the Bandits one by one: with extreme prejudice.

After an indiscriminate time, the shields started to buckle and a stray arrow pierced one in the centre, aiming right for Uzumaki Naruto's back. Ibiki saw the shot, with a grim determination he moved in frount of the boy, knowing their only chance was his Chakra no Tate Jutsu.

The boy snapped out of his daze and solidified the Tate's with the last dregs of his Chakra, hauled out of his body.

Naruto spun and caught the falling bear like figure behind him.

Ibiki looked out pensively at the boy on the battlefield for a moment that would be burned into the blonde's mind for eternity.

A slow moving hand brushed Naruto's blood-soaked and reddened hair away from his eyes

"Naruto… live well and strong. You are like me… tough, be strong for Konoha".

With that, the bear-like man crumpled into Naruto's arms, all breath left the body of Morino Ibiki, along with what little colour he had left.

Naruto gently set Ibiki down and stood, trembling slightly, ignoring the hammering of the Bandits on his flickering shield.

The blonde glanced up; whisker marks solidifying, his hair and body were stained red-black with blood, but now the previously cerulean eyes revealed a similar red, widening horrifically. Chaotically swirling, those burning eyes took in the now silent and unmoving bandit mob.

"**You will pay… for this"**

The boy snarled in a deep, guttural voice as his hand waved about the battlefield, nails extending into claws. The encircling Tate's glowed blood red before exploding outwards in a shattering display of raw power.

The slivers of Chakra rocketed around the field of battle, piercing ground, metal and flesh with equal impunity.

Everywhere the multitude of Chakra shards landed, a clone grew. This clone was not just any bunshin though; they all glowed with an unholy red light and slashed wildly at those daring to challenge the power of the fox.

Naruto stood in the centre for a second, after mouthing "Kitsune Kai" and forming a ram and Karana seal.

The bandits were suddenly on the off foot, facing down hundreds of mad as viper Demon-fox imbued shadow clones.

Many clones were pricked and destroyed, but as they went they imploded, sucking limbs, people and sundry objects into the miniature black holes.

Men died horribly defaced by glowing claws and smashed into paste by small, homing Tate's, glowing that sinister red. The original Naruto was not missing out either, he plowed through the mob in an effort for locate a real challenge, after all this was true power!

These insects deserved to be crushed for their arrogance in challenging Uzumaki Naruto!

Such were the boy's thoughts as burning red coils of Chakra roped and snaked throughout his body.

Finally he found a weary man who had the skill to dodge not one, but three mini-Tates. The blonde turned temporary brunette attacked with reckless abandon, completely ignoring a spring kick to the chest in his haste to gut the man daring to stand before his magnificent aura!

After much fruitless attacking, in which the man managed to avoid most of the damage with very quick footwork, the blonde growled out

"Well well, I did not expect to see you here, traitor."

The mystery man, a tall man with imposing eyebrows also spoke up, panting from the extreme force used in each and every single blow from the demon-ridden Shinobi.

"Sorry Naruto, my family had to eat and the dojo was not giving us any sustenance. This is for the best."

The boy snarled and attacked even faster "save the speech for the Shinigami, little man."

The man, who was of course one Maito Sai grunted and continued, swaying away from vicious undercuts and only just blocking obvious yet powerful overhead slashers.

After a time, Sai slowed down a little; it was then that the cunning fox struck.

A red haze appeared around the left arm, Sai did not notice and paid well for his folly. Blocking a blow to the throat, Sai found the red haze forming into a Chakra arm and tearing off his own defending limb.

The defeated man fell to the ground, screaming in agony as Naruto looked on, an inhumanly wide grin on his feral features.

"Please… spare me, my children nee-"

At this point Naruto's face went dangerously blank, he turned away and Sai relaxed. One red tail shot out from the boy's collarbone, wrapping around his neck faster than you can say 'jimmeny cricket!"

It sheared his head off as Naruto continued to walk away, muttering "Human filth all deserve to die."

Things descended into a red haze of death for a time, Naruto's 'primal' side just about taking over and delighting in the slaughter of desperate men.

When the blonde 'awoke', there was a curious-looking wooden snake attached to his face… The red haze drained away from his limbs and his Clawed hands became as normal for a young human male.

Naruto stumbled and fell, the same wooden snake looping around his body to prevent the face-crunch into the dirt, it lifted the Jinnchuriki up and took him over to a young Konoha ANBU member.

The ANBU was standing next to Kakashi and his father. The Cyclopean Jonin woke Naruto up and explained to him that the man utilising the wooden snake could suppress evil power with his Mokuton (wood release) Jutsu.

These techniques were copied from the First Hokage's power, the one praised with building Konoha. The man's name is Yamato.

Naruto naturally was a little in the dark on his evil power, until Kakashi reminded him of Obito's little announcement a while back. The boy grew quiet and moody, remembering the men he had slaughtered while the demon was strong.

This included one Maito Sai, a good man as Naruto remembered it. The boy's hands shook as he recalled how the desperate man had died, on his knees begging for mercy that would, nay could not come.

Noticing Narutos condition, Kakashi loudly (well in his usual bored monotone) explained how they had arrived in the area of battle. His father Whitey squatted down and put a hand on the blondes' shoulder.

Yamato, Kakashi and Whitey had been on the mission to find the legendary Sennin, Jiraiya when they heard of Konona's 'grand' mission oft bandit extermination.

Naturally they hurried with the mission and located Jiraiya, convinced him to return and went to the battlefield just in time to outflank the enemy, although Naruto 'going nuts' had already halted them.

Jiraiya was currently leading a large battle group of frog-warriors (At which Naruto did his best fish impression) to mop-up the surviving bandits.

The boy took a breath, swallowed and said

"OK then, thanks guys, really good timing. I was worried from the start when Yuu had to retreat, after that we were just being out-muscled for ages. Then I…"

Kakashi smiled, even though it could not be seen and replied

"Indeed Naruto, but even though Yamato can supress your little problematic power, you still purposely released the fox upon these bandits, are you sure you can still contain his spirit?

After all, he has tasted blood for the first time in nearly twelve years."

Naruto merely nodded.

"Yes indeed, he tasted blood, yet he is no stronger for it. Indeed, for the moment he is weaker from mister Yamato's cool technique and his own effort.

He is wearier than I at this moment and has gained no power today, never fear.

Speaking of weariness…"

At this Naruto slumped back into the embrace of the wooden snake, blissfully unconscious.

In time Jiraiya returned and the army of Konoha returned to their hidden village, permanently lessened in number.

Naruto awoke in a white bed two days later, swearing loudly (D'arvit!) he dressed and took off for the Hokage tower.

The boy managed to gain entrance, as Yamato was the guard outside the office door. Inside, the Third, Jiraiya and Whitey were holding a meeting, to discuss further the plan of one Uchiha Obito.

The Sandiame turned at Naruto's entrance and smiled warmly

"Hello Naruto, this talk affects you as well, so please sit down.

So, we are sure that this is truly Uchiha Obito?"

After receiving three nods, Sandiame continued.

" Very well, Jiraiya, you shall take Kakashi and find Tsunade, her skills are sorely needed here in Konoha besides she is the largest requirement for Obito's plan.

Make sure she comes here, even if you must marry her."

The elderly Sennin grimaced then spoke up:

"Firstly, marriage in not an option, she is too unsound with the finances to attach my considerable Icha Icha funds to. Second, I do not like Kakashi overmuch; even I think there is something… wrong with that man. No, if anyone comes, it will have to be the Gaki here."

At this point Jiraiya points to an excited Naruto, who jumps up and down exclaiming 'Yippee', before Jiraiya smacks him on the head in a careless manner.

Sandiame puffed on his pipe for a second, he was not fooled, Kakashi, Whitey and Jiraiya knew about Naruto and that his spirit would be down after the events two days prior. This mission would be an excellent way to take his mind off things.

"Yamato will accompany you both then, just in case, his unfortunately acquired Mokuton Jutsu can prevent another incident with Naruto's power, he is also in need of some more global missions, it does not do to have a ninja bound to one place for too long.

It can dull the skill…"

Insert frogs croaking and other such noises here as all in the room peer at the Sandiame's aged weather-beaten face.

Naruto broke the awkward silence with a cheery "Alright then old man, we will be off now, Ja Ne!"

Thus the adventure begins…

-

Here is where y'all can stop for a rest break, stretch your legs to prevent excessive blood-clotting and other such fun things.

No?

Well do not sue me when you have future amputations then. You have been warned. Back to our sponsored (really? By who?) Naruto fanfic, if you are still reading, your perseverance is truly appreciated.

-

The trio set off right away, despite the toad Sennin complaining of his lost last day of 'research' at the local Konoha baths.

Days and nights passed in a blur of cooking, hunting and belching. Not soon enough for Naruto they reached the sizeable town of Tie-condirowa. Jiraiya immediately left for a no doubt sleazy place muttering about "Intel gathering time."

Naruto felt a little off, for some reason. Searching his pockets for an evident answer, he cried out

"No, my Gama-chan has been taken!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…"

This is where a head-cradling blonde realises that the sneaky Sennin likely relieved him of his cash the night before.

"Alright, that stupid Ero-sennin will pay, ill go and bust his…"

A calm wooden hand to the backpack, courtesy of our very own ANBU restrained the charging boy.

Yamato spoke up lucidly "Well Naruto, we should probably book in at the inn eh?

It is not like Jiraiya-sama would take your money unless he needed it for a good reason, like finding Tsunade-sama.

Besides, the mission pay will more than cover you, probably many times over, come along now kid."

Yamato effortlessly dragged a still protesting blonde off to the cheapest looking inn, where he reluctantly paid the fee, seeing as Naruto was temporarily penniless.

Later on in the afternoon, with a still missing pervert, Naruto carefully (By which it is meant, loudly and sincerely) persuaded some money in the from of a loan from Yamato, at which point the boy ran out the door yelling "Ja Ne!"

The blonde ran from the inn into the bustling marketplace, wandering interestedly about the place.

He found many fascinating things to spent his now meagre funds on –

A simple card game where he lost a total of ten dollars…

Another simple-seeming game where you throw water balloons at a target for prizes; Naruto missed out on any prize due to his slight inaccuracy from his anger at the previous game.

The stall-owner laughed at the boy, calling him one hell of a terrible ninja in reference to his Konoha headband.

The man received one last balloon to the face as a parting present, Naruto then ran laughing from the scene with a small mechanical cat as his claimed trophy.

Pocketing his new treasure, the blonde scurried off to find more mischief.

This was found in the form of a fake ANBU mask, another five dollars down the proverbial drain, the boy took one step after donning the mask only to fall flat on his face and break the darn thing!

A man watching did comment that the masks were for decorative use only, walking with them on requires caution. By this point of course the blonde had already ran off, leaving behind a nonplussed observer talking to thin air.

This incident only slowed the boy down slightly; he still found a merry-go-round like ride, which he procured more rapidly vanishing money to ride.

After the slow, rather boring ride on the back of an odd winged horse, he took off again; finding a seafood stall the boy contemplated the last of his paper and coin.

Naruto ended up buying an adult sized and half-sized squid, thinking to find and coerce the elderly Sennin into trading it back for his wallet.

Chomping away, he looked around thinking which way would be the best to go.

Glancing into a foreign building, the boy discovered a disturbing scene. Jiraiya had evidently decided to go to a brothel, two hookers were currently attached to the man, his lecherous laughter echoed throughout the establishment.

This was not the disturbing part though, Naruto crouched at a small table and glanced at his wallet, Gama-chan, to see it completely and woefully empty. He then proceeded to prance about in an aggravated manner and scream at the top of his lungs:

"Ero-Sennin! How could you… I will kill you Shan 'Aro!"

Arms flailing wildly, the irate youngster accidentally tossed his adult sized squid behind him, onto an important looking man.

The man had one companion who, after seeing the look on his face, turned to Naruto and yelled.

"Hey Gaki (brat), you damaged Bro's shirt, now you have to pay for it.

Hand over the Ten grand right now, or else!"

Naruto merely stood there with a seemingly shocked expression, alike to the one a deer adopts when it sees the approaching car headlights. You can call them stupid beasts all day long but, looking into those eyes, you can tell they are thinking "Oh dear". Cough. Apologies, back to it neh?

As stated, the boy merely stood in place, mouth agape at the ridiculously priced piece of clothing.

The important man took a step forward, and his 'bro' called out rather menacingly

"Well Gaki you are in for it now, Bro was a Chunin in the hidden stone village, he will beat the damage out of you."

Ero-Sennin, A.K.A. Jiriyia got up from his wench-pile in a slow attempt to aid the blonde, but he promptly sat back down and smiled, muttering "poor buggers" as he went.

In any case the squid-suited man readied himself for the attack as Naruto clued in and shaped up for a fight.

There was silence for a moment as the two combatants attempted to stare each other down (Well one up, the other down), then the man moved swiftly… right into the air! (Like a ninja!)

Flying sideways, the man at first appeared in control, then his arms were flailing wildly and he made contact with a rather unforgiving stone wall, which was nonetheless damaged by the impact.

The foolish lackey muttered "bro…" before running off in the opposite direction, naturally everyone else face-faulted at this point.

Bouncing back to his feet, Naruto saw a young woman with long blonde pigtails panting slightly as she stared down the squid-man, now unconscious and leaking blood.

She spoke up as a teenage girl ran up to her side, also panting. The girl was of average eight, with middle length brown hair and matching eyes. She was wearing a black dress, chastely fastened well above her breasts, with a fishnet undershirt and black sandals.

"That will teach him to assault a Konoha Shinobi, especially such a short one."

Naruto frowned and attacked, yelling out "Hag" as he went, arms windmilling wildly only a few inches from her face, the boy strained before going limp, whereupon the finally mobilised Ero-Sennin dropped him.

"Ero-Sennin… I almost had her, why did you stop me?" asked a petulant Naruto, now pouting on the ground.

The teenager smiled and even Jiriyia and the other woman seemed less grave than they had a moment earlier, staring warily into the other's eyes.

"Because Naruto… this is Princess Tsunade, it would be a shame to attack her now, seeing as we went all this way to find her and she managed to find us!" Jiriyia proclaimed with a wide grin.

"Well, I could smell you as I was passing through Jiriyia, I would not help but notice your… subordinate picking a fight with that fool, not being a supporter of child abuse I stepped in as you seemed a little preoccupied." Tsunade replied.

The old man then replied, looking behind him "Ah yes, those lovely ladies… NO they have gone… gone."

This time it was the elder man's turn to slump on the ground in a petulant heap, Tsunade gave him a 'playful' punch, well and truly into the ground and said.

"Bah, let us go eat, after all it has been a while since I last saw your perverted self."

Tsunade explained as they walked that she was merely passing through the town, her teenage subordinate Shizune had been visiting her grandmother earlier that day.

They reached a restaurant/bar eatery, so naturally that was the place to be, in no way was that influenced by the adults desire to drink while eating…

Filing into their seats, Shizune and Tsunade sat in a booth facing the rear of the establishment, while Jiriyia and Naruto sat across them, facing the entrance. Naruto was across from Tsunade in the outer seat; the older woman leered unpleasantly at the blonde, who merely glared at the dot on her forehead.

"Hey hag (Insert a pained Naruto here) ouch what is with that dot on your head? Does it change colour when you get angry?"

At this, Tsunade leaned in closer, with a quite fearsome scowl on her face, she spoke up

"You tell me."

After a lengthy inspection, Naruto said

"Hmm, nope it looks like the dot is just a stupid decoration ouch."

They ate their meals as they came; Naruto had the seafood platter, giving Jiriyia a filthy look as he mowed through the Squid section.

"You are paying for this Ero-Sennin, I have not forgotten your actions earlier." The boy even managed to sound mildly menacing with sauce and food encrusted all over his pie-hole (mouth).

They all finished eating; Jiriyia explained why they were there, searching for Tsunade and all, they drank as the slug Sennin thought it over.

"I am not going back Jiriyia, We…"

At this point Naruto jumped up with an incoherent cry and Tsunade, thinking the blonde needed a good smacking, placed her head in her hands tiredly.

There was an odd sound, like a butchers blade cutting into a hank of meat, then two pinging sounds, as of an object rebounding off a solid wall. Tsunade looked up and gasped in horror.

Naruto was directly in front of her, with a huge blade sticking out of his chest, a Chakra no Tate was dissipating in front of the group, several more blades were scattered at the edge of the Tate.

Naruto had spied two men entering the eatery as the adults conversed. They had looked about, upon sighting Tsunade they pulled out weapons and threw them. Naruto threw two Shuriken at the men, jumped ion the fore and cast his Tate, only a moment too late to stop the first blade.

Both of the attackers slumped dead against the wall, necks spurting blood all over the nearest customers.

Naruto's aim had become near perfect after long training sessions with Anko. The boy saw the two men fall, he smiled a blood-tinged smile upon the staring patrons, then looked down slowly.

He saw the knife in his chest and a look of almost comical surprise came upon his face.

It then slackened and the world went dark for our young hero. The last thing Naruto heard was an anguished scream, as he muttered sleepily " loud hag".

-End of chapter-

Well, it took roughly two months didn't it, Hmm and to think I was going to give up, those last 1500 words were rather annoying to write, I hope it does not look as terrible to you as it still does to me.

Nether the less, I shall continue; this is an interesting challenge for my meagre skills, hope someone enjoys it.

(I could make excuses for the time it took, but there are not really any, I got lazy and unmotivated, hence the shortness of this chapter).

Next chapter: Evidently some information on young Naruto Uzumaki, does he live to be the valiant savoir of our not so young Princess?

Or shall he die, to join Hinata and Teuchi in the netherworld… I am considering both options in all seriousness people, being mortal I do love to write about life after death… a dream though it very well may be.

If it goes for life, he will have to take some time off to recuperate, sit on the sidelines.

Try and help out Teuchi's daughter with the struggling Ramen stand, fight off crazed assassins, the quiet life, you know?

With death, well it could go in any wacky direction… even starting up a Ramen stand inside the stomach of the Shinigami! Feel free to let me know the more attractive option as you see it, the views of others helps me to make this look like a story with an actual stable plot-line.

Ahem, either way, Juugo and Hidan will be back soon, with numbers of the fabulous, the lovely: Crazy Cultists of Jashim! (Like religious extremists, only with no excuse to do what they do… oh wait there is no excuse… hence the 'extreme' bit. Ah well you all get the picture.)

Tune in next time for a (Hopefully more prompt) chapter of Uzumaki Naruto: Pressure.

Good day/night to you all, be you sir, madam or something else entirely.


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